Legend of Annabeth
by ricojohn
Summary: Korra lived a full life and died surrounded by her friends and wife, Asami. Eighteen years have passes since Avatar Korra died and the world was on the verge of a tipping follow Annabeth, an earth-bender, as she fight to hold onto what she holds dear. The summery sucks, just give it a try! Legend of Korra crossover! Review Please
1. Chapter 1

A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: I've just finished bingeing The Legend of Korra and have an idea for a crossover. So incase my summery sucked here it is again.

Korra live a full life and died surrounded by her friends and wife, Asami. When she passed the world appeared to be at peace but as we all know, balance cannot be maintained without the Avatar.

Eighteen years have passes since Avatar Korra died and the world was on the verge of a tipping point. Dark forces are hard at work, threatening everything.

Follow Annabeth, an Earth bender, as she tries to hang onto what she holds dear.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1

POV: Annabeth

There were plenty of moments in my life where I could begin my story. I could start when my mother taught me to earth-bend when I was four, or maybe I would tell you about how she died when I was six when a fire-bender decided her pocket book looked good to him. Perhaps I should jump in when my father snapped and blamed bending for what happened to my mother and joined the equalists and met my, to be, step mother at a meeting.

But I think my story begins on the one day my dad showed my some compassion, about three months before my eighteenth birthday.

"YOU BOUGHT WHAT!" My step mom, Susan, Shrieked at my father. "I thought we swore to stamp this out! This will only make the problem worse!"

"We both know the problem hasn't surfaced in more than five years." My father pointed out. "And with how nicely things have been going I thought a celebration was in order."

"You're supporting the very thing we stand against!" Susan shouted, her face turning beat red with anger.

"Oh, come on, Susan!" My father chuckled. "I hate it as much as you do but we did say we would if the problem was contained."

"We said that just to keep it contained!" She hollered. "I never thought you'd actually buy the tickets! You're going to put dangerous ideas in her head!"

"She's standing right here, you know." I pointed out as I rolled my eyes.

I hated when they talk about me like I'm not in the room. And I wanted to punch something whenever they mentioned the "Problem". The only problem in this house is their…Racist? No, not racist…Bendist? Is that even a word? Can I make it a word?

Well I will.

The only problem is their bendist attitude. I hate how they hate people because they're benders and keep talking about getting rid of them. The reason I care so much is because my mother was an earth-bender and so am I.

Because they would be shunned by their friends if word of my bending ever get out, I was forbidden to ever use my bending. My father promised me for years that if I behaved he would let me watch a pro-bending match. He made me this promise five years ago when I was caught levitating a small rock in the back yard.

I was dragged to my room, which dad had plated with platinum so I couldn't bend anything, and was beaten by my step mother. When she told my father he gave me a very disappointed look and offered me a deal. If I would stop bending he would fulfill my lifelong dream of seeing a live pro-bending match.

Despite their anti-bending attitudes they let me listen to one match a month on the radio, just to shut me up.

Despite the fact that I have never seen a match before I love to hear the announcer describe the action. I particularly love when he describes the team H.B.B. Also known as the Half-Blood Benders. Based on the descriptions I've heard, they sound amazing.

"I'm very aware that you're there!" Susan screamed at me. "You're always there! Always in the way!"

I wanted to bend a rock into her face so badly. See her smug face get pulverized, but then I wouldn't get to see the match.

So I bit my lip instead.

Susan glared at my father before storming out of the room.

I waited a few moments before speaking.

"So what teams are we seeing?" I asked my father, still excited at the idea of seeing a match.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out two tickets and checked them.

"It says they are called the Rabaroos and Jupiter's Benders." My father said slowly as I bounced up and down from excitement.

"When's the match?" I asked, still bouncing.

I didn't want to wait a day let alone a week to see it.

"In about an hour." My father said as he moved towards to door of our kitchen. "So get your shoes and we'll go."

My mind went into shock.

An hour.

The match was in an hour!

I was going to see the match today!

I ran off at break neck speed to find my shoes.

Once I had them on I was sprinting out the door with my father trying to keep up with me.

"Annabeth!" He called after me. "Wait up!"

I paused for a moment, torn between what to do. On the one hand my father had my ticket, on the other I was just too worked up to stop.

"Hurry up!" I called back as he hurried closer. "I don't want to be late!"

"Late?" He asked me as he drew nearer to me. "We live two blocks from the arena."

I looked up the street at the giant building that had taunted me for years. Every weekend I could hear the roar of the crowd and practically feel the excitement but I was never allowed to go. Susan thought it would inspire me to use my bending. Well, news flash, I never stopped. Every night after dad and she go to bed I sneak out to the free gym a few buildings down from the arena and practice my bending there.

As we passed the gym we started to enter the crowd around the arena.

"Can you believe our luck?" A boy to my right shouted at, what looked like, his twin brother. "I mean a double header! Man I'm so pumped man!"

"A double header?" I wondered aloud.

The boy seemed to notice me, which I must admit was the first time anyone noticed me.

"Yup!" He said excitedly. "H.B.B. and Party Ponies had their match canceled yesterday so they're playing tonight after Jupiter's Benders and Rabaroos!"

I couldn't help but whoop with excitement.

H.B.B. was playing here! Tonight! I was not only going to get to watch two matches but also H.B.B.!

My father on the other hand looked troubled, like someone just told him he not only had to moe the lawn but also had to wear a hundred pound weight while doing it.

"I just had to buy the one time they have a double header." I heard him muter angrily. "Stupid."

I ignored him. Not even his Bendist attitude could bring me down tonight!

As we entered the arena I was almost deafened by the crowd. The arena was even bigger on the inside then I thought it would be. The stands were packed with people and in the center was a huge pit at least one hundred feet to the surface or the water and an elevated platform rising from the water about seventy five feet above the water. The platform was blue and red with a circle in the center and three zones marked out by arcing lines on the floor on either side of the circle.

'So that's what it looks like.' I thought to myself.

As I gaped my father led us to a pair of seats and we sat and waited for the match to start.

Suddenly the middle circle on the field lowered down into the platform and returned with and announcer.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" He shouted into his mic. "Please welcome the first team, Jupiter's Benders!"

The crowd roared and a team wearing gold armor with purple cloth under it, emerged from the locker room near the blue end of the field. They were led by a blond boy who had a white tab on his head guard. To his right was a short, dark skinned girl with gold eyes and a green tab on her head guard. Standing on her other side was a girl with black hear and a mean look on her face and a red tab on her head guard. And, finally on the far left, was yet another girl with choppy brown hair and eyes that looked like they were shifting colors. Her head guard had a blue tab on it.

The announcer then announced the other team and Jupiter's Benders stepped onto a stone platform that brought them across the pit to the platform in the middle.

Once both teams were on the platform the referee started the match. Immediately the blond boy threw a punch and a gust of wind shot forward and hit an opponent with a blue tab in the gut.

The rabaroo slid back two zones and was teetering on the edge of the platform. Meanwhile, the girl with the choppy brown hair sent a jet of water at a girl with a green tab on her head guard and sent her flying into her friend in zone three and they both toppled over the back of the field. It was then that a rabaroo with a red tab shot fire balls at the Girl with the black hair. She swatted the fire ball with her hand as a gust of wind approached her left, sent by a rabaroo. Before it hit her though, the short girl summoned several earth disks and formed them together to make an earth shield on her arm and used it to absorb the wind blast.

As she blocked the shot a fire ball hit her right side and she stumbled. While her guard was down the air-bender on the rabaroo team sent another gust of wind and knocked her clean off the back of the platform.

This turned out to be too distracting for the rabaroo though because he was immediately hit with a fireball, thrown by the black haired girl and a gust of wind by the blond boy. The combined attack knocked the boy out on the spot.

The last rabaroo was fighting tooth and nail to try and stay in the ring as the water-bender hammered him hard with attack after attack.

It looked like he would go down any second when the reff blew his whistle.

"Round one is over!" He called out. "Jupiter's Benders win round one!"

The crowd roared with cheering as the teams reset themselves for round two.

When both teams were up and ready the second round started.

Again, Jupiter's Benders went on the offensive and in a furry of attacks from all players managed to knock three rabaroos into zone three and the fourth into zone two.

So Jupiter's Benders advanced into the first zone on the Rabaroo side of the field.

It was clear the rabaroos had no fight left in them. Their air-bender was still swaying after getting knocked out in the last round and the rest of them looked like they were running out of juice.

Before long their air-bender collapsed from Exhaustion and their Water bender was sent into the drink by an earth disk. Their earth-bender tried to form an earth shield but was being hammered hard by fire balls and was hit by a water jet while he was distracted.

Finally the fire bender as taken down by the blond air-bender, ending the match with a knock-out.

The crowd went wild as the two teams left the arena.

Then the announcer returned and started to scream "And now for our double header!"

The crowd's roar could deafen anyone within five miles.

"Our first team is the Party Ponies!" He screamed pointing to the wall to his left as four benders emerged from their locker room wearing brown armor with tan fabric.

They stepped onto their transport platform as the announcer turned to his right.

"And on the other side is the rookie team that's been taking the sport by storm!" He called out. "The Half-Blood Benders!"

The audience let out a thunderous roar as the four members of the team stepped out onto the transport platform dressed in their bronze colored armor and orange fabric.

On the far left was a scrawny boy with curly brown hair and his red tab marked him as a fire bender. Next to him was an earth bender that looked like he was two of his team mates put together. He was this massive guy, looking around in astonishment but in his eyes were a clear sadness. Meanwhile on the far right was a tall boy with curly brown hair. His helmet marked him as an air-bender. The one leading the group though was a water bender with black hair and green eyes. He had this trouble maker's grin on his face as they stepped onto the fighting platform.

My dad got up and turned to me.

"I'm not going to sit through another match." He said. "So I expect you home as soon as the match is over."

I nodded as he turned and left.

Just then the reff started the match and all the benders on HBB went on the attack. It was such a huge onslaught that there were only two Party Ponies were left after the first few seconds and they were both in zone three.

A fire-bender on the Party Ponies tried to attack the black haired water-bender but his fire balls were cut off by earth disks. Then while his guard was down he was hit with a gust of wind and sent over the edge.

Finally the Party Ponies only had one team member left. An air-bender who was doing well at dodging but went over when all the HBBs attacked at once, ending the match in a round one knock out!

The crowd roared.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

POV: Annabeth

I was leaving the stadium when out of the corner of my eye I saw three figures walking down an ally marked 'Do Not Enter'.

So of course I just had to follow them.

When I reached the ally I saw two boys surrounding a girl. I couldn't hear everything they were saying but from what I caught it sounded like they were mugging her.

"Hay!" I screamed as I entered the ally. "Leave her alone!"

They turned around to face me and I could see the smirk on the one boy's face.

"Get lost." He ordered. "Before you get hurt."

As he said this he raised his hand, bending a large rock into the air.

"How about you leave her alone?" I said, putting as much spite in my voice as I could muster.

The boy's smirk widened as he threw the rock at me.

I side stepped it and redirected it back at him with my bending. The surprise of my bending caught him off guard and the rock hit his head and knocked him out cold.

His friend screamed in rage and threw a fire ball at me. I instantly pulled up a wall of earth between me and the fire but it wouldn't hold long against the flame thrower like conditions the boy was inflicting.

So I made an earth pillar rise up from under me really fast, catapulting me into the air. As I flew I prepared to throw an upper cut so my earth strike would hit his jaw but he was too quick.

Before I could move my arm he had re angled his flame thrower to attack me, midair.

I sucked in a breath as it approached and threw my hands out in front of me. I could feel my strength in my chest flowing to my arms as I braced for the impact but it never came. Instead I saw fire shoot from my outstretched hands and collided with the fire coming towards me. When they hit there was a huge explosion and the boy was knocked backwards into the wall of the ally and blacked out.

I staggered around the ally, dazed by what had just happened. Eventually the girl who was cornered walked up to me, looking concerned.

She had long red hair and stunning green eyes.

"Are you ok?" She asked me.

"I think so." I said, shaking my head to clear it. "How about you?"

She nodded. "I'm fine." She said. "They never even laid a hand on me, thanks to you."

"Don't mention it." I chuckled. "Who were those guys anyway?"

"Just some thugs." She answered. "Probably knew who I am and thought they could get some money."

I paused for a second.

"Who are you, exactly?" I asked, now curious.

"My name's Rachel Elizabeth Dare." She said. "My father owns the arena."

"Really?" I asked, taken off guard because of how average she was dressed.

She nodded.

"Yup." She said. "And who mite you be?"

"Annabeth Chase." I said.

She nodded.

"Well, Annabeth," She began. "Probably a stupid question but you're the Avatar, right?"

I froze in shock.

"What?" I asked. "Me? Oh, hell no!"

She raised an eyebrow at me as I spoke.

"Then how did you Earth-bend and fire-bend?" she asked.

I paused as I thought about it.

"I honestly don't know." I answered. "I was just going on instinct there."

She frowned, skeptically.

"You're telling me that's the first time you've used bending?" She asked.

"Well, no." I began. "I knew I was an earth-bender but I didn't know I could fire-bend too."

She smirked at me.

"I know a guy who can figure out if you're the Avatar or not." She said. "Come on, I'll introduce you."

I took a step back and shook my head.

"I can't." I said. "I'm already late, I have to get home."

She frowned.

"I'm sure your parents will understand if you tell them you're the Avatar." She said.

I shook my head. "You don't know them." I said. "That'll only make things worse."

She looked puzzled but before she could speak I took off running. Feeling an urge to just get out of there before this night got any more complicated.

Time Break!

I awoke the next day to my father kicking open my bedroom door with a look of furry on his face.

"Annabeth!" He hollered at me.

I sat bolt upright, alarmed by the sudden burst of noise.

"Wha?!" I cried out. "Dad? What's going on?"

I told you to come right home!" He screamed at me as he stormed up to my bed side. "But I just finished talking to a girl who said you stopped a pair of muggers by BENDING!"

"What?" I blurted out, surprised by the fact that he knew about that.

How had Rachel found my address?

"Don't play dumb with me!" My father screamed. "She used you're whole name! You could have ruined everything Susan and I have been working so hard to achieve because you wanted to play the hero!"

He sighed.

"I've tried to give you the benefit of the doubt." He said in a shaky voice. "I promised I wouldn't do this but you give me no choice."

He trailed off, leaving an awkward silence.

"Dad?" I asked tentatively.

He just shook his head.

"You're coming to the next meeting where they'll have you purged." He practically spat at me.

I could feel my blood run cold.

He and Susan had mentioned that the equalists had a new electric gauntlet that, if used correctly, could take away someone's bending.

"You can't!" I cried. "Dad, please!"

"I warned you many times." He said in a low tone. "So now if you survive, you won't be able to jeopardize anything in the future."

"But the gauntlets KILL fifty percent of the people they're used on!" I screamed, bordering on tears now. "You can't!"

"I can and I will!" He screamed back. "And none of this would be happening if you only obeyed me!"

"She was being mugged!" I screamed. "I was trying to help someone!"

"Bending only causes problems for people!" He retorted. "I thought I had taught you that!"

He turned around to leave but I had one last trick up my sleeve that would either save me or doom me.

"I used fire-bending last night!" I screamed after him.

He froze in his tracks and turned around slowly.

"What did you say?" he asked, looking scared.

"I found out I can fire-bend." I told him as I held out my palm and sucked in a deep breath.

Again I felt strength flowing up my arm, from my chest, and a small fire ignited in my palm.

My father looked horrified.

"I might be the Avatar." I told him. "You can't take my bending away or you risk destroying the world."

His face went from horror to calm and set like a stone.

"Avatar or not, you will be purged." He said menacingly.

With that he slammed the door in back of him and I heard a click on the outside that told me he locked me in.

I couldn't hold back the tears anymore and I broke down into sobs.

I don't know how long I cried for, but it was a long time. Eventually I heard a clank on my window. I looked over in time to see a second pebble bounce off it.

I slowly stood up and walked over it and threw it open to find Rachel outside.

"Why'd your dad say he never heard of you?" She asked as soon as my window was open.

"Rachel?" I asked. "What are you doing here? How did you even find me?"

"Well my dad's one of the richest guys in the city so pulling some strings to track you down wasn't that hard." She began. "And as to why I'm here, I thought you might be in a tight spot and came to help you out."

"Tight spot?" I questioned.

"I know what your father plans to do." She said flatly. "I'm not going to let that happen, now come on!"

I was going to ask her how she knew but I heard a rustle on the other side of my door and knew my father was coming back, probably to bring me to the purging ceremony.

I turned back to Rachel and nodded.

"Just jump!" She called up to me. "I'll catch you!"

I just laughed a little and swung my legs out the window and rapped them around the gutter pipe and slid down it like a fire pole. I guess years of sneaking out finally paid off.

Rachel looked impressed as we heard my father screaming from my bedroom.

"We better go." I told her as I took off sprinting.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

POV: Annabeth

A few minutes later she stopped me and looked at me sternly.

"If you could do that this whole time why were you waiting to be purged up there?" She asked.

I shrugged.

"Where would I have gone if I ran?" I asked. "It seemed better just to accept it."

"You don't know anyone who could have helped?" She asked.

I shook my head.

"You're the first person I've met who I could consider a friend." I told her. "Kind of sad when you think about just how little I know about you."

She stared at me shocked for a moment before she spoke.

"Well, we better change that then, huh?" She said giving me a half smile.

And so we talked about our likes and dislikes. Despite what you would think we had a lot in common.

She liked art in all forms, I liked architecture and other designing types of art. She prefers to be comfortable over looking good, so do I. The list just kept growing from there.

Eventually our walk led us to the door of a mansion.

I gaped at it in awe as Rachel casually unlocked the front door and let us in.

"This is your house?" I asked her.

She nodded, blushing slightly.

"Yup." She said. "It's way too big if you ask me."

I gaped around at the huge entry foyer and the high sealing.

"Rachel?" I heard a warm voice ring out from across the house. "Who's that you're talking to?"

"My dad." Rachel whispered to me as a tall, obviously wealthy, man entered the room. "Hi, dad. This is Annabeth." The gestured to me. "Is it cool if she stays here a while? She has nowhere else to go."

Her dad seemed to be memorizing me.

"Annabeth." He repeated. "As in the same one that saved my Rachel from the muggers last night by using BOTH fire and earth-bending?"

Now I was blushing a little.

I nodded to him.

"Well then of course you can stay!" He cried happily. "If it weren't for you, who knows what would have happened to Rachel!"

Then he paused.

"And I assume you would like to talk to Chiron as well." He said, offhandedly.

"Who?" I asked.

"The guy I was telling you about last night." Rachel said. "The guy who could tell you if you're the Avatar or not."

"Oh," I said. "Yah, sounds cool."

But I wasn't sure about this. I mean, how could I be the Avatar?

But never the less, later that day I was sitting in a room with a guy in a wheelchair.

Chiron seemed to be one of those crazy teachers that would make all the answers to your test B.

He just had that knowing twinkle of mirth in his eyes.

"So, Annabeth," He began. "I was told that you both fire-bend and earth-bend." Chiron said in a friendly tone.

I nodded.

"Would you mind if I see?" He asked.

I nodded again and lit a small fire in my hand. Then once I put it out I stretched a hand out to the planter cross the room and levitated some dirt.

Chiron nodded thoughtfully.

"And which ability did you learn first?" He asked.

"Earth." I answered. "My mother taught me."

He nodded again.

"She was an earth-bender, I presume?" He asked.

I nodded again. "Yes, sir."

"There's no need for sir's" he laughed. "Please call me Chiron."

I nodded again as he went back to thinking.

After a few more odd questions and several minutes of silence he finally reached a decision.

"Annabeth," He began. "While I may be mistaken, I do believe you are the Avatar."

"So what now?" I asked him, honestly confused on what to feel.

"Now," Chiron said. "You will need to find a master to teach you all the elements and a spiritual guide to learn how to use the Avatar state properly."

I nodded.

"Where can I find those?" I asked.

"Any where you'd like." Chiron said. "But from what I heard you have a good grip on earth-bending and as far as spiritual guides go, they do not come any finer than Miss Dare."

"Rachel?" I asked in surprise.

"Indeed." Chiron nodded. "She is more in touch with the spirit world than any one I have ever met."

I nodded, but I was still a little surprised.

When I finally left the room, Rachel was in the hall waiting.

"Well?" She asked. "What did he say?"

I hesitated, unsure what to say.

"Are you the Avatar?" She pressed.

I nodded slowly, only to be deafened by a squeal and tackled in a tight hug.

"I knew it!" Rachel screamed as she hugged me. "So what do you do now?"

I shrugged.

"Chiron told me to find masters to teach me fire, water, and air bending." I began. "And he also recommended I talk to you to learn about my Avatar state and the spirits and stuff."

Rachel paused, clearly taken aback.

"Please?" I asked her. "I have no idea what I'm doing here and it would mean a lot to me if you would teach me."

Her surprised face melted into a small smile as she nodded.

"Of course." She said. "And I think I know where we can find you some bending masters."

Time Break!

Rachel emerged from the kitchen after making a phone call to the people she said could train me in bending.

"Well?" I asked her.

"They're going to meet you in the workout room of the arena tomorrow at six." She said.

"Who are they?" I asked curiously.

She just shot me a grin.

"Spoilers." She teased. "Now come on, I still have to show you your bed room."

She led me down the hall as I kept trying to get her to tell me who she called.

"Come on!" I begged. "Please!"

She just smiled at me and said "If you stop begging, I'll give you your first lesson on entering the spirit world."

And so I shut up and followed her into a bedroom on our right.

Inside it was huge with high ceilings, a really nice radio, a walk in closet and personal bathroom, and a queen sized bed.

"Wow," I said as I felt my eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "This is my room?"

Rachel shook her head with a smile.

"Sorry," She said. "But this is my room. I usually meditate in here so I'll show you your room after the lesson."

I nodded as she led me to the bed and kicked off her shoes.

She climbed on and sat there, cross legged, and turned to me expectantly.

So I kicked off my shoes, climbed on as well and sat across from her.

She closed her eyes and pressed her fists together in front of her stomach. Not knowing what to do, I imitated her.

"Just relax and let your mind go blank." She told me in a calm voice.

I nodded and tried to do as I was told.

"For now, I'll guide you in, but you will eventually learn to do it by yourself." She said as I felt part of me slip away.

The, in a moment, I was standing in a large, empty, field with some floating spirits.

"Rachel!" I called out, looking around for her. "Rachel, are you here!"

"Yup." I heard her say, popping the 'P'.

I turned around and released a breath I hadn't realized I was holding when I saw her.

"You got in pretty fast for a first timer." She commented. "I guess we should just hope that all your training goes this smoothly."

And so she gave me a tour of the aria and taught me about the spirits. We also talked about anything that came to mind though, like pro bending and recent movers, and after getting a little restless we wound up playing tag with some young spirits we found. Rachel laughed when I fell over after attempting to earth-bend with no results.

"Bending doesn't work if you meditate into the spirit world." She told me, offering me a hand up.

I took her hand and she hoisted me up, still chuckling.

Eventually she told me it was time to return to our bodies so I closed my eyes and let my mind go blank again.

When I opened my eyes I could barely see through the darkness as Rachel's outline moved.

"I guess it's later than I thought." I heard her say from the darkness as she turned on a lamp. "We should get some sleep."

I nodded.

"Where's my room?" I asked.

She glanced at the door before answering.

"It's down the hall but I'm too tired to move right now." She said. "Would you mind crashing here?"

I nodded.

"Ok." I said. "Where would you like me to sleep?"

She just patted the spot next to her as she yawned loudly.

"Just sleep here." She said once she stopped yawning.

Again I nodded and climbed under the covers, ready for a good night sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

POV: Annabeth

I woke up the next day face to face with a sleeping Rachel.

For a moment I was completely confused and freaked out until I remembered where I was.

Once I settled down I tried to get out of the bed without waking her, only to hear a rustling and a sleepy Rachel ask "Where are you going?"

I turned around from my position on the edge of the bed.

"Sorry." I said. "I was trying not to wake you."

She just rubbed her stunning green eyes and sat up.

"It's no big deal." She said. "We should probably be getting up any way."

And so she got out of bed and stretched.

"So do you want first shower or should I take it?" She asked as she walked towards her closet.

"You can take it." I told her.

She nodded as she grabbed a towel from her closet and walked into the bathroom.

I laid on the bed for twenty minutes, pondering how my life had gotten here when Rachel came out and announced the shower was free.

"Grate!" I said sitting up and was about to get out of the bed when I froze.

In front of me, Rachel was walking to the closet dressed only in a towel that barely covered from her chest to her thighs. Her long red hair flowing down her back. She was beautiful.

When she walked into her closet I finally snapped out of my daze and stood up to go into the bathroom but froze again as she came back out in her towel.

"Wait." She called across the room. "Don't forget a towel."

She walked over to me with a fresh towel in one of her hands and I had to mentally force my arms to move to accept the towel.

She was really that stunning.

"Thanks" I managed to say.

She nodded.

"No problem." She answered. "We'll pick you out an outfit from my closet when you're done. Can't have you wearing the same cloths every day, now can we?"

A smile crossed my lips at the way she said that. The sentence itself was pretty normal but the way she said it with that joking smirk on her face made me want to laugh.

"Ok." I managed to say.

I couldn't explain it but every movement and thought I had was a forced one. All that came naturally in that moment to me was to stare at her.

But I did manage to walk to the bathroom and close the door in back of me, breathing in a huge sigh.

"Come on, Annabeth!" I muttered under my breath. "Get it together! She's the first person you've met who treats you like you're a human being and now you're going to scare her off!"

And so I stripped and took a shower in her tub that looked more like a Jacuzzi than a bath tub.

After I was sure I was clean I got out and dried off. Then I realized I had nothing to put on besides the dirty clothes that I had been wearing since the pro bending match.

And so I had a choice to make.

Throw on my old clothes and ruin the point of a shower or go out in a towel and embarrass myself in front of Rachel. I mean she walks out looking stunning with her fair skin, toned body, long red hair, and those green eyes that seemed to shine like emeralds.

Me on the other hand, well I wasn't beautiful like her.

I was a little too muscular from practicing bending every night and my hair was a little on the puffy side.

When I was younger I had princess curls but as I grew up they straightened out. This wouldn't be bad but they haven't quite flattened down to my head yet so it looks like my hair puffed out a little. My dad once told me that only I could notice tiny details like that but I was still self-conscious about it.

Then there was my tan skin that would look ok if it wasn't contradicted by my Storm grey eyes, that even I think look intimidating.

Eventually I sucked it up and rapped the towel around my chest. Just like it had with Rachel, it barely made it down to my thighs.

I sighed, knowing I would regret this, and opened the bathroom door.

Rachel sat on her bed, dressed in a maroon top and black pants. Even when she was dressed I could still see how pretty she was.

"Finally!" She cried out when the door opened.

I just stood there awkwardly for a minute as she stared at me from the bed with those amazing eyes. I was a little uneasy because I didn't recognize the look in her eyes. It wasn't an emotion that I was familiar with so I had no idea what was going through her head.

Eventually she cleared her throat.

"So, uh…"She began, pausing, as if to try and think of the right words. "Let's get you some clothes, huh?"

"Sure." I answered as I followed her to her closet.

She rummaged through her cloths for a while before standing up with dark blue pants and a green shirt.

"I think this is more you're style." She said handing them to me. "There's underwear in that draw if you want a pair." She added as she left the closet for me to change.

And so I borrowed a pair of underwear and changed into the clothes she gave me. They fit surprisingly well.

When I walked out of the closet Rachel gave me a smile.

"You look beautiful." She told me as she led me to breakfast.

And so that's how my day started. With very confusing emotions for a girl who I only met the other day but had already considered my best friend.

POV Change!

POV: Rachel

I had been sitting on my bed for what felt like forever, waiting for Annabeth to come out, and was staring at the roof when I heard the bathroom door squeak open.

"Finally!" I cried out as I looked down at the now open door to see Annabeth dressed in a towel.

My brain went blank.

I couldn't think, move, or even breathe.

She shifted uncomfortably in the doorway and the way she did it made my heart skip a beat.

'Snap out of it!' My brain screamed at me. 'She's watching you!'

"So, uh…" I began, pausing trying to think of some words to say. "Let's get you some clothes, huh?"

'Smooth.' I thought sarcastically.

God what was wrong with me! This was the same Annabeth that I had spent all day with yesterday! Why so awkward now!

Then a thought occurred to me that I had never thought about once in my life.

Maybe I like, like, her.

'Do I even go that way?' I thought.

But that was just crazy thoughts. There was no way. After all, I had dated Percy for almost a year before he became a pro bender.

'So there is no way.' I told myself as I led Annabeth to the closet, trying not to look at her.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

POV: Annabeth

And so six o'clock rolled around faster than I'd like to admit thanks to Rachel's privet mover theater in her basement and Spirit world training in her room. It didn't go as well as it had last night. Partly because I kept getting distracted and partly because Rachel seamed more distant today.

"Ready?" She asked me as she kept one hand on the door that separated me from the people she had called on her phone.

I nodded.

As she pushed the door open my jaw dropped.

Inside was the Half-Blood Benders.

"Wha?" I began as my brain went into freak out mode. "But...I mean…how?"

Rachel just laughed.

"Annabeth," She said. "this is HBB. HBB, this is Annabeth."

They all said hello as Rachel pulled me into the room.

First she introduced me to a scrawny kid with curly brown hair.

"Annabeth, this is Leo." She said. "He's going to tech you fire-bending."

Then she pointed to the taller boy with curly hair.

"And that's Grover, he's an air-bender." She said turning to the boy with the black hair and the sea green eyes. "And this is Percy, The best water-bender you're gona find."

I said hello to all of them, still surprised that I was actually meeting them.

"Sooo," Leo began, "You're an earth-bender?"

I nodded and I looked around the three.

"Where's the fourth guy?" I asked, remembering the huge guy that was on their team in the fight I saw.

"Oh, Tyson?" Percy asked. "He had to go to work in his father's forge. Our fight the other day was his last one."

I nodded.

No wonder he looked sad in the fight.

"I guess we should get to work then." Percy said. "So just show us what you know so far and we'll figure out a plan from there."

And so I formed a fire ball in my hand and bent one of their earth discs into the air and molded it into different shapes before throwing it across the room.

Percy shot me a trouble maker's grin.

"Not bad." He commented. "Good form, no bad habits that I can pick up on."

He nodded approvingly.

"This should go well." He said.

Time Break!

And so the next few months flew by. Every day I would train with a HBB member.

I quickly learned that Leo thought of himself as a ladies man and that Grover took nature lover to a whole new level.

Percy was a hard one to figure out. He seemed to be pretty normal but he had these moments where you would swear someone replaced his brain with seaweed.

Despite their quarks, I was learning a lot from them.

Leo had taught me how to fire-bend like a pro in a few days.

Water and air were taking longer for me. Rachel insisted it was because I have a stubborn personality so using elements that require fluid movements and a more free spirit would be harder for me.

Never the less I got the hang of them.

After bending training I would go back to Rachel's house and practice trying to access my Avatar state.

This was always my favorite time of the day because she was just such a fun person to hang out with. We would talk about anything that comes to mind, tease each other, and just feel normal for a while. In fact, the only place I feel relatively normal and relaxed is when me and Rachel hang out.

My life was coming together pretty well.

Except for one part, sleeping.

Every night I would go back to my bedroom in Rachel's house and try and sleep, only to have the same nightmare.

In it my father and his "Friends" surround me and try and purge my bending with their gauntlets. No matter what I do they keep coming closer, taunting me as they surround me.

"Now, now, Annabeth!" My father would say. "I told you not to bend, but instead of listening to me you go and start bending all the elements." He shakes his head as he reaches out to my forehead with his gauntlet. "You deserve this."

But I always wake up before he can purge me.

I sit bolt upright, panting and covered in sweat.

Every time I try and sleep it comes back.

Until I finally stow my pride and wake her, that is.

One night I was only half way through the nightmare when I was shaken awake by Rachel, who looked concerned.

"It's ok!" She whispered, soothingly, as I flailed around. "It was just a dream."

She managed to calm me down and left as I went back to bed.

The peace didn't last long.

I was hysterical that night. I thought I had finally escaped my father but was now having this night mare every time I closed my eyes.

Eventually I got out of bed and walked down the hall to Rachel's room.

"Rachel?" I asked as I entered her room.

She stirred groggily.

"Annabeth?" She asked, peering into the darkness. "What's up?"

"Do you have any sleeping pills I could take?" I asked. "I keep having that stupid nightmare and just want to go to bed."

She gave me a sympathetic look.

"Sorry," She told me, sitting up in her bed. "I don't keep those on hand."

I nodded, a little disappointed.

"It's ok." I told her as I turned to leave.

"Wait." She said. "If you can't sleep you can always stay here until you black out."

I turned around to find myself face to face with those beautiful eyes.

"Thanks." I told her, kind of embarrassed.

I walked over and sat down next to her on the bed as she scooched over to give me some space.

"It's no problem." She told me as she tossed the covers over my legs. "So what was the nightmare about?"

I stared at my feet for a second before answering.

"My father and the other equalists finding me and taking my bending." I finally responded, drawing my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them.

"Sounds terrible." Rachel said, rapping an arm around my shoulder.

I nodded.

"It just seemed so real." I said, starting to tremble at the memory of it. "He almost did it, too."

"It was just a nightmare." Rachel said soothingly.

I shook my head.

"If you hadn't shown up at my house when you did," I began. "It would have been real. He really would have done it."

I could feel the tears forming behind my eyes. My own father was going to do that to me! He was supposed to protect me and raise me! Instead he was going to hand me over to the equalists!

"Hey," Rachel said in a gentle tone, rubbing my shoulder with the arm that was around me. "You're ok now. I won't let that happen to you."

I nodded, beginning to cry, and leaned into her side.

"Ssshhh, you're ok. I got you." She continued as I broke down.

When the crying finally stopped I was still leaning into her side with my head on her shoulder, her arms wrapped around me in a light hug.

"Thank you." I croaked out after a few minutes of silence.

I looked up to see her staring back at me, her soft lips curved upwards into a small smile. Her green eyes shining kindly at me.

"Anny time." She said.

My brain went fuzzy and my body stopped responding to my brain's orders for a few seconds. In that short span of time I leaned towards her and kissed her soft lips. For a moment she did nothing and I was about to pull away when I felt her lips move against mine in a tender kiss.

We sat there for the longest time, enjoying the moment.

Eventually we broke apart and I leaned my far head against hers and closed my eyes.

"Wow." I heard her gasp under her breath, an air of bliss in her tone.

I nodded my head in agreement.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

POV: Annabeth

For the next month or so I would fall asleep with Rachel. As it turns out it's helped me a lot with the nightmares. They seemed to have stopped, finally giving me a good night's rest. One night we were lying in bed, her head on my shoulder, when a thought hit me.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare." I muttered to myself.

"Hhhmmm?" She asked. "What's up?"

"Your name," I began. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare."

She shifted her head to look at me.

"Yah?" She asked, sounding a little cautious.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare." I repeated. "R-E-D."

Her eyebrows raised as I spoke.

"Red." I said, as a smile played at my lips.

I could see a slightly embarrassed smile cross her face.

"Yah," She said. "Red."

I chuckled as I leaned down and gave her a kiss.

Time Break!

Today we, me and Rachel, were taking the train to town hall to publicly announce the return of the Avatar. As we rode Rachel was staring around the practically empty train car.

"This is life, isn't it?" She asked in a faraway voice that she usually uses late at night and she becomes engrossed in thought.

"What? Train rides?" I asked. "Because we could have taken your car but you said you didn't feel like driving."

She shook her head.

"That's not what I meant." She said. "I mean, look around."

I did, noticing six, lonely looking, people sitting up and down the train car and two business men talking by the back of the car. Then the train came to a stop and the doors slid open. One of the business men got up and left, leaving the other alone.

"See?" She asked.

I shook my head. This deep, poetic, type of thinking was her way of viewing the world. It's nice to listen too but I can't figure out how she does it.

She sighed.

"Life is like one long train ride where our stop is at the end of the line." She said. "We get on and more often than not we are alone. We just take a seat and wait for our stop, feeling lonely. If we're lucky we'll have a companion like that mad down there but their destination is always a different one then ours." She paused here, deep in thought. "Mostly we just sit in our seats and hope we find a nice companion to break the loneliness for a while, but deep down we know that no one but us is riding the train to the end of the line."

I stared at her for a moment, not sure what to say.

It was kind of a depressing thought, but when I thought about it, thought about how people will be there for each other until they get a new job or move or even die, like my mother, I realized how true it was. How when it comes down to it we may ride the same tracks and but that doesn't mean we're going to the same place. We all have to get off somewhere.

I pondered this as Rachel tapped my arm.

"We're hear." She said, as I got up and followed her off the train.

Time Break!

I felt like I was going to throw up. The feeling was consuming every fiber of my being. In front of me was an army of reporters, as cameras flashed and a man was filming me on his mover camera.

"Um," I began as I spoke into the mic in front of me. "Hi, I'm Annabeth."

The crowd stared at me, expectantly.

"Uh," I continued, hearing the echo of my voice over the crowd. "I'm the Avatar."

The crowd started to all talk at once as cameras flashed.

"What's your plan about the recent equalist attacks?" One called out.

"Why haven't you returned sooner?" Another asked.

"What's your plan for the alleged army?" Another yelled.

The questions kept coming and I had no idea what half of them were talking about. Equalist attacks? Alleged army? What?!

I just stared at them, trying to think of something to say. Luckily Rachel stepped in.

"The Avatar will deal with each problem one at a time." She said. "As for the plans, that's top secret."

The crowd roared with more questions.

"That's all for now." Rachel said. "Thank you."

"Thanks, Red." I said as we walked away from the podium. "I had no idea what half those people were talking about, let alone form a plan to stop them."

She just shot me a smirk.

"No problem." She said. "And don't worry, we'll figure out something."

Time Break!

The next day Chiron stopped by to ask me what my plan was now that I announced myself as the Avatar. So he, Rachel, and I gathered around in her father's living room to discuss what my next move would be.

"I don't know." I admitted to him. "Those reporters kept asking me about things that I didn't even realize were problems."

"Like what?" He asked.

I just shook my head.

"They mentioned a rumored army and equalist attacks." I began. "I just don't know, up until now it didn't feel real. It felt like someone would just laugh and say that it was just a joke or that I was dreaming."

"It was only a press conference." Chiron began.

"No." I cut him off. "Not the press conference. I mean me being the Avatar."

He studied me for a moment before I continued.

"I mean, it just never felt real until now." I said. "But now I have to keep balance in the world. The whole world is depending on me and I have no idea what I'm even supposed to do!"

Chiron nodded.

"You are not the first Avatar to struggle with this." He said kindly. "It is a great burden to be the Avatar but I am confident that you will find your path if you keep an open mind." He paused. "And I believe I can help you with your first step. The equalist attacks have been happening the last few months, they seem to be hunting down benders and, as the media puts it, purging them."

My blood ran cold.

They were purging people! I couldn't imagine what those poor people were going through, losing their bending. It would be kinder to them to just cut off their left arm!

And in that one moment I knew this had to stop and I also knew where to start. The one problem was that I was terrified to even consider doing it.

"Are you ok?" Rachel asked me from her seat next to me on the couch.

I guess my emotions were showing in my face.

"They're purging people." I said, hearing the terror in my own voice. "Red, they're purging people!"

She nodded.

"We'll stop them." She assured me.

"We?" I asked. "Red, I can't ask you to do this."

She gave me a smirk.

"Then it's a good thing you don't have to." She said. "Did you really think I'd let you run off and fight the equalists alone?"

I just stared at her, not sure how to respond. Of course she would want to help but if she got hurt, or worse, I would never forgive myself.

"And not to mention," She continued. "Percy, Grover, and Leo would want to help too."

"I can't let anyone get hurt because of me." I said. "Especially you."

"You can't do this alone." Rachel cut in.

"It is true." Chiron spoke up. "Avatars of the past usually have a small group of friends that help them maintain balance in the world."

"See," Rachel began, gesturing to Chiron. "He agrees with me! So like it or not I'm coming with you."

Rachel's face was one of 'its gona happen so just accept it or we're going to have problems' so I nodded.

Her expretion changed to a smile.

"Let's go get the others then." She said. "And we'll figure out how to find the equalists."

Recruiting the others only took a few minutes. They pretty much signed up as soon as I said "I need your help." And I hadn't even told them what I needed yet.

I was honestly surprised they were willing to do this for me. I had never had any friends but now I had Red and three friends that were willing to follow me anywhere, even before they were told where they were going.

I didn't feel like I deserved this but I was grateful for them all the same.

"So where do we start?" Rachel asked as we gathered around in the gym.

"My father's house." I said. "We follow him to his next meeting and use that as our chance to stop the attacks."

Percy, Leo, and Grover nodded as Red stared at me in shock.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked. "I mean you still get nightmares about him."

I sucked in a deep breath through my nose as I thought about how to respond.

"Do you have any other ideas about how to find them?" I eventually asked her.

She didn't look happy about it but she shook her head.

"Then we know what the plan is." I said. "We steak out his house until he leaves for his next meeting. We take shifts of sleep, eat, free time, exercise, and watch. When he leaves the watcher alerts the other three and we leave together."

They all nodded.

"I'll take first watch." I said as I left the building.

I sat down in front of the gym and looked down the street towards my father's house only a few blocks away. I tried to fight off the bad memories but they kept resurfacing. 'This is going to be a long watch.' I thought to myself.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

POV: Annabeth

It had been tree days of watching when my father finally left for his meeting. It was early one morning, maybe four o'clock or so, when he left for the meeting. How did we know that was where he was going you ask? Well that's simple, he was wearing a gauntlet.

I wasn't even the one on watch when he left. Grover was.

I was asleep in the gym, Red's arm draped over my side as she laid in back of me on the cot.

"Hey." I heard her whisper in my ear as she shook my side. "Time to get up."

I stirred.

"My watch already?" I asked her, groggily.

"No," She began. "Grover just said your dad's on the move."

My eyes snapped open. It was time! My stomach felt like it was tied in knots.

I shot up, looking around to find all the others gearing up for the fight to come.

"You're sure you want to do this?" Red asked, concern deep in her eyes.

I nodded and stood up, putting on my two water pouches that I started to wear on my back a few weeks ago. They are two long pouches that form an x over my back and the straps do the same on my chest. The corks holding the water in sits on my sides, under my arms.

We ran out the door in groups of two, hopping not to draw too much attention towards us, and blended in with the hustle and bustle of the busy city.

As we followed my father I saw that he wasn't alone. Susan was with him. The two of them went into large brownstone style building to the left, down the street from the spirit vine forest, the beam from the portal visible over the tops of the green vines.

"So what's the plan?" Rachel asked.

"We kick down the door and rush them." I said. "Capture as many as we can before they know what hit them. Leo, Percy, Stand guard for any stragglers that might get past us. Grover, you're on me."

"What about me?" Rachel asked.

I sighed, not likening where this was going.

"Look, Red." I began. "There's some dangers people in there and you don't bend or have any means to fight them off. It's too risky."

"I can handle myself." She said indigently.

"Then if one of them rushes you, what's your plan?" I asked.

She just calmly walked up to me and stared me down. I was about to reiterate my question when her arm shot out faster than I could track it and grabbed my wrist. In an instant I was on the ground with my arm bent painfully behind my back. She released me and stood up with a smirk on her face.

"After I was almost mugged I took fighting lesions while you were learning bending." She said.

I just stared at her.

"And why didn't you tell me this?" I asked.

She shrugged.

"You never asked." She said.

I stared at her in disbelief.

"Yes I did!" I said. "I asked what you did when I was gone a lot!"

She shrugged again as we turned back to the house, readying to move in.

"We're going to talk about this later." I said over my shoulder as I approached the front door.

I sent a boulder towards the door, which burst open, and we ran in.

Inside there were many men and women wearing gauntlets, discussing something that I never got to hear because I launched multiple boulders at them, knocking half of them out. Grover meanwhile, was sending wave after wave of air at them, throwing them against the wall and knocking half of the remaining equalists out.

Of the few remaining equilists only one tried to fright. Red quickly rushed the man and gave him a jab to the throat. He collapsed, gasping for air, as Red snapped a kick at his head and knocked him out.

"What's the meaning of this?!" Cried one of the few equalists that was awake.

"Shut up and lie face down on the ground!" I screamed at him.

"Annabeth?" Asked one of the men in the room that I recognized as my father's friend. "What are you doing here?"

He turned to my father, who I was disappointed to see awake, and stared at him.

"What is this?" He demanded.

I launched a rock pillar up from the floor at an angle to pin the my father's friend to the wall.

"I said shut up!" I screamed. "Now all of you will do what I say or you're next!"

I lit a fire in both my hands to emphasize my point.

All the remaining equalists laid down except my father, who was glaring at me.

"How dare you." He growled. "You…"

He never got a chance to finish because I launched a jet of water at him from my right pouch and used it to pin him to the wall and froze the water to keep him there. His head and arms protruded from the ice but not enough to let him move.

"Get the gauntlets." I ordered. I'll cuff them as you pull them off."

Rachel nodded and removed the gauntlet of the guy on the floor in front of her. I then bend handcuffs out of earth and wrapped it around his wrists. We did this for all of them, including my father.

"Grover," I began once they were all cuffed in the corner. "Go call for the cops, tell them we captured a lot off equalists and it could help them find the rest."

He nodded and left.

"Annabeth," The man from earlier began. "You're a bender?!" He then turned to my father. "Your daughter was a bender this whole time and you never brought her in for purging?!"

My father looked at the floor in shame as I stared at him in disgust.

But as my hate grew I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Red smiling at me.

"The plan worked." She said.

I smiled back.

"Since when do my plans not work?" I asked as a team of cops came swarming in.

She gave me a peck on the cheek as she walked over to a gauntlet that was on the floor.

"I bet this might come in handy." She said, picking it up.

I took a step back from her, uncomfortable with the idea that she wanted a device that could take away bending.

She must have noticed my reaction because she said "Don't worry. It only takes bending when pressed to just the right spot on the far head, in all other scenarios it only electrocutes the target."

I was about to protest when a cop tapped me on the shoulder.

"So you're the ones that over powered them?" He asked.

I nodded.

He rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'm afraid I need you to come with me." He said.

"Why?" I asked, surprised by this.

"Being a vigilante is illegal." He said.

"But I'm the Avatar." I said. "This is my job."

He paused, as if not quite believing me.

So I lit a small fire in one hand and bent a rock into the air in the other.

The officer took a step back as I put out the fire and dropped the rock.

He rubbed the back of his neck.

"We'll," He began. "I guess its ok then."

He didn't seem sure but he eventually let us leave.

Before we got half way down the block the officer came sprinting out.

"Wait!" He called after us. "Wait!"

I stopped and turned to face him.

"I need you to come with me!" He said urgently.

"You're arresting me?" I said in disbelief.

He shook his head.

"No," He began. "There's a problem at the air field, some sort of hostile takeover of the aria! I don't know all the details but I just received word and the chief would appreciate if you would help."

I nodded and followed him, the others following close behind.

"Someone took over the air field?" Leo asked as we followed the officer. "But that's miles from the city, why are we being sent there?"

The officer shrugged.

"I don't know." He said. "But everyone who can make it to the field in the next twenty four hours is being called in."

And so we climbed into his car and were racing off to the airfield.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

POV: Annabeth

When we arrived at the air field it was about midday and the sun was high in the sky.

All around the complex of hangers was a police barricade.

When we got out of the car we were greeted by a woman in armor who introduced herself as chief Clarisse La Rue. She looked like someone you would regret getting into a fight with.

"I thought Avatars were supposed to be tuff." She commented as she looked me up and down.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" I demanded.

She just shrugged as she turned back to face the air field and hangers.

"There is a small army in there and our intel says they are planning on launching a bomb raid on the city." She began to explain. "So here's the deal, I'm going to deploy my forces in along with you and your team to take them out before they launch any airships." She turned to face me. "We don't know who these people are or what they want exactly so be careful. And whatever you do don't get yourself killed, I don't feel like filling out the paper work." With that said she turned and left.

"Charming lady." Leo commented.

"So how are we going to do this?" Grover asked.

I shrugged.

"Sneak in and take as many of them out as we can before they know we're even there." I said.

Ten minutes later we were moving towards a hanger in a, low to the ground, sprint.

"Leo, on me." I whispered. "Keep close. Red, Percy take right. Grover go airborne and give us some cover."

With that I sprinted off to the left as Red and Percy went right. Grover gave a running jump and used his bending to zip off, silently, into the sky.

"Look for a way in." I whispered to Leo.

"They'll be watching the entrances." He answered in a whisper. "I have a better idea."

He jogged over to the mettle wall of the hanger and made a fire jet in his hand. He then placed the hand on the wall and moved his arm in a wide arc, carving out a circle.

The metal plate was about to fall with a loud bang when I caught it with my bending and lowered it to the floor without a sound.

Leo turned to look at me so I gave him a nod.

He nodded back and climbed in through the hole.

Once we were inside we took cover behind some large crates and could see there were about two hundred troops in here along with one, massive, airship.

"Can you rip up the flight controls to stop the take off?" Leo whispered to me.

I stretched out my arm in an attempt to metal bend the rudder or break some parts but I was met with nothing. The ship wouldn't bend, it was like being back in my old room at my father's house.

Then the thought hit me like a ton of bricks.

"It's made of platinum." I whispered in horror. "It's unbendable."

Leo frowned in concentration.

"We might be able to disable it from the inside but I would need to get to the controls." He said.

"You want to fight your way through the whole army?" I asked, a little put off by the idea.

He shrugged.

"Do you have a better plan?" He asked.

I frown in thought when I noticed four men in armor emerge from around the other side of the ship along with three prisoners.

"And of course they have hostages." Leo muttered. "Just keeps getting harder and harder by the minute.

"Shut up!" I whisper shouted as the hostages came into view.

The man in armor who didn't have a hostage stepped forward towards an empty aria of the hangar.

"Avatar!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. "Come out now or I kill these three!"

He gestured to the three figures that were slumped over, unconscious, in the arms of the other three armored men.

My stomach dropped.

It was Grover, Percy, and Rachel.

"No!" I screamed, about to step out from behind the crates when Leo grabbed my arm.

"Don't." He warned. "It's a trap."

"I know that!" I snapped at him. "They have Rachel!"

"Think!" Leo cut in. "They somehow knew we would be here. And La Rue knew what their plans are even though no one could even confirm they existed until now. This felt off from the start but now I think they're after you."

I stared at him, not sure what to say.

"If you go out there you give them exactly what they want." He finished.

"Avatar!" The man screamed again. "I won't ask you again! Come out now or I kill them!"

I glanced at Leo.

"They have Rachel." I said in a defeated tone. "I can't lose her."

With that said I yanked my arm away from him and stepped out from behind the crates, staring down the man in armor.

He gave me a smirk as he waved me forward with one hand.

As I drew closer to him I began to pick up the small details of his face. His blond hair and blue eyes. His face might have been considered good looking if it weren't for the scar running down it.

"Well, well, well." He said in a mocking tone. "The great Avatar has returned."

"Let them go." I growled at him as I pointed to my friends.

As I said this I noticed Rachel's eyes opened a little as a groan escaped her lips.

"And why would I do that?" The man asked me. "What do I gain from releasing them?"

"You obviously want me for something." I told him. "Let them go and I'll come without a fight."

He smirked again with amusement and shook his head.

"But I want you to fight." He said. "I want to be the one who defeats you."

"Then let them go or I walk out of here and you never get your fight." I told him.

He smiled like I just gift wrapped him a present.

"Oh, I think you will fight." He said with a nod as he snapped his fingers. The air ship in back of him roared to life. "Because if you don't you will be the Avatar that let republic city burn to the ground."

I glanced from him to the growing crowd of his troops around us.

"So is this some sort of Equalist movement or something?" I asked, trying to stall for time, La Rue had to get here sooner or later. If she was really on our side, that is.

The man laughed.

"Not at all!" He said with glee. "Because I am no hypocrite. Trying to get rid of bending would be hurting myself as well."

He shot his hand out and I heard a cry of pain in back of me as Leo flew up into the air and floated there with and expression of agony on his face.

"I'm told my blood bending can be a bit painful." The man said with a smirk. "I guess your friend here can make a comment on it?"

The man twisted his hand and Leo's arm bent at an awkward angle as he screamed even louder.

"Stop it!" I screamed at the man. "Why? Why are you doing this?!"

The man dropped Leo with a thud in back of me as I stared him down.

He gave me a smile.

"Well, that's simple." He said. "You're the Avatar of light. I am the Avatar of darkness. Kora defeated my predecessor but I was reincarnated just as you were and so here we stand again. Only this time I will not fail."

My eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Dark Avatar!

'Oh, fuck!' My mind screamed at me.

Then it hit me. He had so many followers here. How did he get so many?

"How'd you get so many people to help you bring about nothing but darkness?" I asked him, hoping to keep him talking.

He chuckled.

"Stalling," He began. "Smart move, you know you can't beat me." He nodded. "You're hoping someone will save you. But you're running out of time. The air ship is set to auto pilot so unless you're on board when it takes off you will never save Republic City."

"Why?" I asked. "Why target them if it's me you want to kill?"

He smirked at me.

"The easiest way to get to an Avatar is to threaten innocent people." He said. "You all take your jobs way too seriously."

I stared, dumb founded.

He was going to blow up Republic City just to get me to fight him.

I looked over his shoulder to see Rachel was fully awake now and struggling against her guard. Her eyes locked with mine for a moment as I saw the anger in her face. The determination to fight to the end.

I turned and looked the man square in the eyes and asked him the only question I had left.

"Who are you?" I asked.

He gave me a smile.

"My name's Luke." He said. "And you're done stalling."

He took a step forward right as the hangar door exploded and in rushed La Rue's forces.

There were screams everywhere as all sorts of bending flew through the air.

I dropped to one knee to avoid the cross fire as a crows swarmed around me, blocking Luke from my vision. I could barely make out the lumps of my unconscious friends Percy, Grover, and Leo. I couldn't see Rachel though.

I looked every which way, starting to panic, when I noticed the air ship ramp was raising.

I had to get on board and stop this!

So I took of sprinting and used an air-bending jump to propel myself onto the ramp just before it shut.

'No turning back now.' I thought as I glanced at the closed, platinum, gate.

And so I turned back to the empty hall in front of me, readying myself for whatever may come next.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

POV: Annabeth

As I worked my way through the ship I found out it was completely empty. There was no crew in it at all.

'When he said auto pilot her meant it.' I thought to myself as I approached the bridge.

But as I got closed I could hear movement on the other side of the door.

So I charged the door and rammed it open, startling the person on the other side.

"Dam it, Annabeth!" Rachel screamed at me. "You just gave me a heart attack!"

I paused in surprise.

"Red?" I asked "What are you doing here?"

She looked at me with a 'Really?' Type look.

"To stop this piece of junk from bombing Republic City." She said. "You?"

I smirked at her humor tagged on the end.

"Ha, Ha." I said dryly. "So how do we stop this thing?"

She shook her head at the ship rapidly gained altitude. The diel said we were over fifteen thousand feet in the air.

"I messed with the controls a little and we can steer the ship but the throttle is under Auto control and can't be disengaged." She said. "And as soon as the controls are released it goes back to auto pilot."

"Well what good is that then?" I demanded. "If we can't land it or stop it from going back to its bomb run?"

She rubbed the back of her neck in an awkward way.

"Well we actually can stop it." She said. "We put it in a dive so it hits the ground and explodes before it reaches the city."

"You said it would auto correct when we let go of the controls though." I pointed out. "You're talking about a suicide mission."

She nodded.

"There's an emergency hatch in the floor you can use to get out." She said with a solemn face. "I have to crash this thing or a lot of people are going to die."

I shook my head.

"No." I said. "I can't let you do that. You jump, I'll stay. I'm the Avatar, it's my job to do things like this."

"Please don't make this any harder than it already is." She begged me. "You know I can't leave. You can air-bend yourself to the ground. What would I do?" She paused. "I'm dead no matter what. You should go now."

With that she turned around and pushed the leaver controlling the ship forward, sending the ship into a steep dive.

I eyed the hatch from where I stood and turned to stand beside Rachel.

"What are you doing?" She demanded. "Get out of here now!"

"No." I told her.

She checked the controls and shouted "We're crashing from ten-thousand feet! Get out now, while you still can!"

I just placed my hand on her shoulder, getting her full attention.

"I don't care if it's from ten-thousand feet, or just two." I told her. "If you crash, I crash with you." I paused for a moment, mesmerized in her beautiful eyes. "Because I'm with you, till the end of the line."

A sad smile crept onto her face as we plummeted to the ground. She leaned over and gave me a kiss as the ship's instruments warned of an immediate collision.

I was running on instinct by this point and was barely aware of what I was doing. All I remember is seeing the room aluminate in blue light as air rushed around us in a circular motion. Then there as an explosion and fire rushed up the bridge and consumed everything except for the aria inside the wind bubble but momentum still held true so we flew forward into a cloud of smoke as I passed out.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

POV: Rachel

When I came to I was lying in a ruble pile that had once been an air ship. There were plumes of smoke everywhere but none of that concerned me now.

'Annabeth!'

That was the only thing I could think of. Whether or not she was ok. The last thing I could remember was looking up into her eyes to see they were glowing a bright blue, as if they were made of light, and then I passed out.

"Annabeth!" I screamed. "Annabeth!" I looked around in a circle but didn't get a response. "Annabeth!"

Still nothing.

'No!' I thought. 'Not her! Please don't let her be dead!'

I was panicking.

I scrambled to the top of the largest pile of rubble, hoping to get a better view, and froze in surprise.

On the other side of the rubble was a small valley of debris and a dazed looking Annabeth sitting in the center.

"Annabeth!" I called to her excitedly as I ran down the pile to her.

She, on the other hand, didn't move. She only sat there, holding the left side of her head.

"Annabeth?" I asked her as I approached her, not liking the shell shocked look on her face. "Are you ok?"

She slowly turned to me with a puzzled look in her eyes.

"W-What...um…Wh…" She stammered, seemingly unable to finish the sentence.

"Do you know where you are?" I asked her as I knelt down next to her, now paying a lot more attention to the way she held her head.

She shook her head.

I sighed.

"It's ok." I told her, pulling her into a hug. "We just survived an airship crash so it's probably just shock."

She pulled away, eyeing me with a suspicious look now.

"Who are you?" She asked me in a scared tone.

My mind froze.

She didn't remember me. After all we went through she didn't remember me!

"Annabeth," I began. "It's me, Rachel."

She looked puzzled.

"Annabeth?" She asked. "I'm Annabeth?"

It was starting to overwhelm me. She didn't even know her own name!

I couldn't think of anything to say so I just nodded.

"Do you remember anything?" I asked her after a moment. "Anything at all?"

She just shook her head.

She stared at the ground beneath her feet.

"Why were we on an airship, exactly?" She asked after a moment.

I sucked in a deep breath, knowing this could take a while, and told her about the raid on the air field and how she had stood face to face with the dark Avatar. I told her how we got onto the ship and crashed it so it wouldn't bomb the city.

She looked around in surprise.

"We attacked a hangar full of solders?" She asked. "Are we cops or something?"

I paused before answering.

"Well, no." I said rubbing the back of my neck. "You're, kind of, the Avatar."

She seemed to freeze in shock.

"I'm the…" She began. "I'm the…"

"Yah," I cut in, in a gentle tone. "You're the Avatar."

It was at this time that police cars started to show up.

"Over here!" I called out to them. "We need a doctor!"

There was thundering footsteps.

"Don't worry." I told Annabeth as they approached. "We'll get you fixed up."

Time Break!

"Please say you're kidding!" I practically pleaded with the doctor. "It's been two weeks!"

I looked around in distress. The doctors had said that there was no sign of any brain damage or any wounds so the memory loss was just her brain trying to cope with the crash. The doctor promised her memories would start to return in a few days.

I had asked him if seeing a healer would help but he just shook his head.

"There is nothing to heal." He had told me. "So there is no point."

Now it's been two weeks and there is still no sign of her getting any better. She still has muscle memory so she relearnt all her bending in a few hours, but who she is and everything she's done is still a mystery to her.

"I'm sorry." The doctor said. "In some extreme cases the memory loss is permanent."

I just shook my head, not sure what to do, as I turned to look at Annabeth.

She had this look on her face, as if someone just dropped a load of bricks on her shoulders.

Her storm grey eyes met mine and I could see a look of sadness in them. But it was different then you would expect, it was more of pity then despair.

As her eyes stared into mine I felt a wave of despair crash over me the same way it has every time I wake up to find she slept alone because I never told her about us. I mean she already was feeling stressed just trying to regain her memories, how could I pile on even more reasons to remember. It would only stress her out even more.

Despite how I felt at the moment, I knew it would do no good to sit around the doctor's office so we went back to my house.

Time Break!

It was later that night when I figured it was time. Even if she never got her memories back she at least deserved to know that I would always be there for her. So I walked up to her room to tell her about us but was surprised to find her room empty and the window thrown wide open.

"Annabeth?" I asked as I walked into the room.

There was no answer.

I looked around the room until my eyes landed on a letter sitting on her desk.

I picked it up and read it.

Rachel,

You and the others have been so kind to me. I really do appreciate everything you've done but I have to discover who I am, not be told. I know you were only trying to help, so please don't think I'm trying to insult you or blame you, but I can't discover who I am if I am constantly being followed by the press who want to know the Avatar's condition or looking into the eyes of my old friends, knowing they're waiting for their friend back. The hardest part of my day now is when I meet you at breakfast and I see the hurt in your eyes. Like seeing me like this is the worst thing that can happen.

Perhaps one day I will return but unless I can remember who I am I don't think I will.

Good by,

Annabeth

I just stared at the paper in shock. She was gone. She wasn't coming back.

I didn't even get to tell her about us. She might have stayed if I did. Why didn't I tell her sooner?!

I knew right away what I had to do. I had to get the others! We had to find Annabeth!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

POV Change!

POV: Annabeth

I had cleared Republic city hours ago and was approaching a small town in the Earth Republic.

As I entered the town I could hear a few murmurs.

"Is that the Avatar?"

"What's she doing here?"

I scowled.

I needed to blend in better.

As I looked around I saw a barber shop up the street next to a clothing store.

Perfect.

I bought new clothes first. I bought my clothes so that they were practical, not stylish.

Black combat boots, brownish tan, loose fitting, cargo pants, a white tank top and a brown leather jacket that looked like it was designed to be worn by pilots.

The only reason I bought the jacket was that it hid my figure pretty well. The only down side was I needed to find a new place for my water bending pouches. So I lowered them down so that the X that they formed on my upper back was now resting at waist height with the crocked ends sitting just below my hip bones on my sides.

Then I walked into the barber shop and had him shave the sides and the back of my head. I had him leave the top and the bangs to a length just short of my eyebrows so I could use them to hide my face if I had to.

With that done I looked in the mirror. With the new clothes and hair it would take a moment to realize I was a girl, let alone my real identity.

I smiled. I might not look stylish but I was well hidden now. If no one recognizes me then they can't alert the press. No press means I'm free to try and find myself in peace.

Unfortunately the new look used up almost all my money so I would have to find some way to get some food.

As luck should have it my dinner ticket was standing on the curb outside.

"Bending fights!" The sales man was screaming. "Five Earth credits a ticket!"

He spotted me as I tried to walk past him.

"You sir!" He screamed. "You look like you would enjoy watching a good fight!"

I stopped in my tracks and said. "No thanks."

At the sound of my voice the man's face turned beet red.

"Sorry mam." He said. "I am so sorry, with the jacket and the hair…."

"Don't sweat it." I hold him. "But I would like to know if you're looking for any benders to fight in your arena."

The man paused in surprise before answering.

"Yes." He answered. "I'm always looking for benders. Fifty credits a fight for earth-benders, seventy five for fire, one hundred for water and one fifty for air-benders. Then there is a fifty credit bonus for winning."

"Why are you paying more for water fire and air?" I asked.

"Well I pay more because they are rarer to find around here and people will pay a lot of money to see them." He began. "And Air bender as pacifists for the most part so it's hard to find one that will fight even if I do meet one."

"I'll fight." I told him.

He paused, a little surprised.

"You're a bender?" He asked.

I nodded.

"You said one fifty a fight?" I asked.

"That's only for air-benders." He said.

I held out my palm and made a small tornado in it.

The man seamed to become ecstatic.

"One fifty a fight!" He cried out in joy. "Be at this location by six o'clock. It's bracket style so you don't fight more than once unless you win. The grand prize for winning the tournament is a brand new motorcycle."

"Really?" I asked him as he handed me a sheet of paper with the address on it.

He nodded.

'I don't need a bike. I'll just fight in a round or two and walk off with some money for dinner.' I thought

Even as I thought it though my feet began to complain about all the walking I did that day and I couldn't help but think that maybe the motorcycle was not such a bad idea.

And so later that night I walked into the arena to find it was starting to fill up with people. It was a circular pit made of stone with earth benches surrounding the top of the hole.

I was looking around for where I was supposed to go when the salesman from the street corner tapped me on the shoulder.

"The locker room is this way." He said as he led me to a door to my right.

As we entered the room he led me to an empty locker and left.

"So you're the new one?" Asked a voice to my left.

I looked over to see a girl with black hair tattoos all over her arms and face staring at me.

"I'm only doing this for one night." I said as I took off my jacket and hung it up in the locker.

She nodded.

"Just need the cash, right?" She asked.

I nodded, taking off my water pouches and hanging them up as well.

"Trying to pay someone off?" She asked in a tone that made me think this was a daily occurrence.

I shook my head.

"Just trying to keep myself fed." I told her.

"Then why not stick around?" She asked.

"I'm kind of out on a self-discovery type journey." I told her as I sat down on a bench and waited to be called for my fight.

"I'm Thalia by the way." The girl told me as she took a seat next to me.

I paused. What should I tell her? Most people knew the Avatar was named Annabeth and I would be surprised if rumor hadn't yet spread of my disappearance.

"Angela." I finally answered. "My name's Angela."

She nodded as the salesman came back in.

"You," He said pointing to me. "You're fighting now against Steve."

"My name's Angela." I told him.

He nodded and left.

I just shrugged and followed him out to the pit.

Once in the pit I found myself face to face with a scrawny looking guy with brown hair.

"And now we have a special contestant for tonight's match!" The salesman screamed into a mic. "Put your hands together for Angela!"

The crowd roared as I faced Steve and prepared to fight, thankful that my muscle memory was still intact.

I heard a bell ring and Steve launched a boulder at my head. I ducked under it and countered with a wind gust to his chest.

The air-bending caught him off guard and he flew back into the wall of the pit. He slumped to the floor, unconscious.

The crowd roared as I felt the ground shake with the stomping of their feet.

"Knock out!" The salesman screamed as I walked back to the locker room.

The crowd was making disappointed noises as I walked away.

"Don't worry folks." The salesman said. "The Air-bender will be back in the next level of the bracket!"

As I entered the locker room all the other fighters were staring at me.

"So, you're an air-bender?" Thalia demanded when I entered.

I nodded.

"Is that a problem?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"Not now, it isn't." She said. "But it was pretty low not to warn Steve before your fight."

"Like I said." I began. "I need the money."

Even as I said it I felt awful

She nodded as she turned to head out to the arena.

"Your next fight won't go nearly as well." She said.

And indeed it didn't.

I spent most of the next fight dodging fire balls from a guy named Bob as he wore himself out. After a while his attacks slowed so I took it as a sign to stop my spinning and circle movements and to go on the offensive. I launched air jab after air jab, knocking him off balance. Then I launched a kick that make air pick him up from underneath and throw him into the air. I then punched downwards to cause the air to throw him into the ground.

He groaned slightly and passed out.

"Angela is the winner!"

And so that's how the night went. Fighting person after person as my competitors got both more skilled and knew more and more of what not to do when fighting an air-bender.

In the final I was to fight Thalia, who I found out was a water-bender. As I stepped into the fighting pit I could practically feel the crowd's excitement. Me though, I didn't like this one bit. Every time I came out here I had to fight someone. I had to hurt them just so I could get some money to feed myself. This wasn't supposed to be how Avatars acted. We weren't supposed to hurt people for money. But at the same time if I won this fight I would have enough to feed myself for months if not years. Plus the motorcycle would save me the effort of walking everywhere which means less energy burned and less I would need to eat.

I didn't like it but I needed the money, so I lowered myself into a fighting stance as the salesman rung the bell.

I rolled to the left to dodge a jet of water and came up out of the roll with an air jab.

Thalia shifted to her left so her left shoulder faced me as the air jab barley missed her chest.

Then she countered with a wall of water sent my way so I tried to counter it with an air-bending wall of my own but the force of the water was too much.

I then made a thin, vertical, line of air punch through the center of the water by lining my hands up in front of my chest and spread them to either side to form an air wedge so the water would part in the center.

As my air wedge broke through the back side of the water I jumped up and launched a two footed air-bending kick that knocked Thalia into the wall in back of her.

She let out a yelp and collapsed to the ground but was soon trying to stand up. I then launched an uppercut that sent air up at her from below and forced her into the air where I launched a right hook that slammed her into the wall.

Just before she hit the wall she launched a water jet at me from my right side. I saw her hand movements and knew what it would do before the water even moved so I wasn't surprised when the water on the floor to my right suddenly lurched at me and I had enough time to jump over it, using my air-bending for an added boost. When I landed I looked up to see Thalia was barely standing as I panted for air.

I stood up quickly and threw two air jabs at her that she tried to block with water-bending but was too worn out to do much but brace herself.

The air jabs struck her chest and slammed her yet again into the wall. This time though, she stayed down. I stared at her unconscious body at the crowd screamed in approval. If I could help it I would never do this again. I hated how it felt to beat someone up for money.

So I left the pit and got my jacket and water pouches out of the locker as the salesman came in with a bag of credits and a motorcycle key.

"That was amazing!" He cried. "I tell you, with you here there will be fighters from around the world looking to fight in this arena!"

I took my credits and the key off him as I said "I'm leaving town."

He frowned at me.

"What?" He asked, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Why, you were awesome out there!"

I just shook my head.

"This just isn't for me." I said. "Thanks for the opportunity but I'm leaving town now."

And so with that I turned and left the locker room.

It took me a few minutes but eventually I found my new motorcycle.

It was a racing bike that was as red as Rachel's hair. The back had a pouch on each side that I could use to store things in.

I admired it for a minute when a voice in back of me suddenly spoke.

"So you're just taking off?"

I spun around to find myself face to face with Thalia.

I nodded.

"Yup." I answered.

She nodded

"Mind if I ask why you carry water-bending pouches if you're an air-bender?" She asked.

I just shrugged, not sure how to answer that without giving away my identity.

She gave me a smirk.

"You know they're saying you disappeared." She said.

"Me?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Rumor has id you just disappeared the same way Avatar Ang did before the hundred year war." She said.

I just gave her a suspicious look. There was no way she knew who I was.

"And what makes you say that?" I asked her.

She smiled.

"You're an air-bender who carries water-bending pouches and is insistent on moving on like you're on the run from something." She began. "And the other fighters from tonight said that you fought like you knew their moves before they even made them which would be fine if you bent their elements as well and knew what they were about to do but you're an air-bender so you shouldn't know what moves they're making." She paused. "When I put it all together I paints a clear picture. So why are you running, Annabeth?"

She knows who I am! In that moment is was so tempted to just hop on my bike and ride off into the night. But then she would probably alert the media and I would have a tuff time keeping a low profile.

"Like I said." I told her. "Self-discovery type thing."

She raised an eyebrow at me.

"So why the disappearing act?" She asked. "Why not just tell people where you're going?"

"If I do that then the media and people from my old life will follow me." I told her. "I need to do this alone."

She studied me for a moment.

"Old life?" She asked. "What, you're not going back?"

I paused, a little upset at myself for slipping up like that. Eventually though, I just sighed.

"No." I told her. "The truth is that I lost all my memories about two weeks ago and I need to find out who I am. There are people back in republic city who keep trying to tell me, but I need to find out for myself and I can't do that if they follow me."

Thalia nodded in understanding.

"Well would you mind if I tag along?" She asked. "There's nothing holding me here really and I didn't know you before you lost your memory so I can't try and tell you who you were."

She paused.

"Plus you look like you could use a friend." She added.

"My bike only seats one." I told her as an excuse why she couldn't come along.

She just smirked.

"I already have a bike." She said, pointing to a blue racing bike across the street.

It was the exact same kind as mine.

"If you have a bike then why were you fighting tonight?" I asked her.

She shrugged.

"It pays the bills." She said. "I could have sold the bike. Plus I was getting bored so I figured the fight would be fun."

"You actually liked that?" I asked her. "I hated every minute I spent in that pit. Don't get me wrong, I'll fight but beating people up for money?"

She shrugged again.

"We all needed some money." She said. "The same reason you fought tonight. Plus it was a chance to beat the snot out of some boys so…yah."

I really couldn't argue with that logic. I didn't even know where to start.

So I nodded and got on my bike.

"I'm heading north." I told her as I started my engine. "If you want to come you can."

She gave me a smile and jogged across the street to her bike and fired it up.

And so I started to drive. It took me a minute or two to learn the controls but being that I don't have very many memories clouding my mind, I quickly picked up the controls and remembered every little detail.

"This your first time on a bike?" Thalia called to me over the wind as we exited the town doing at least eighty.

"Yup!" I called back. "As far as I can remember!"

"Not bad for your first time!" She commented, sounding impressed. "You might want to lean into the turns a little more though!"

"Ok!" I shouted back as we went around a bend.

This was so much fun! The wind in my short hair and nothing but open road ahead of us, I couldn't imagine feeling more free!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

POV: Annabeth

It's been three months since I fought in the pit. Three months and I've learned a lot. Not about myself, per say, but about past Avatars. I've been studying their lives in the hopes that it will teach me more about myself or that maybe it will let me communicate with them somehow. Ever since I woke up in the debris field, I've been unable to access my Avatar state. So far the books haven't helped with any of my problems but it was still nice to know what my past lives were like.

As I ride from town to town in the Earth republic with Thalia we always seem to arrive at a town in need of help.

Weather its bandits, oppressive rulers, or gangs. I always stop and try and help them. Just because I don't want people to know I'm the Avatar doesn't mean I'm going to let people suffer. So when the fighting starts I pick an element and use only that element in the fight.

I usually don't pick water because Thalia is better with it than I am and it's more useful to have two elements than just one.

Life was pretty good, though I would prefer if Thalia didn't start so many fights.

We would stop at a town, one of the few that doesn't seem to have any problems, and she would pick a fight with store owners, people at bars, anywhere she felt like. I keep asking her to stop it but she just shrugs.

"I like fighting." She'd say. "So I'm going to fight."

"One of these days that attitudes going to get you killed." I said as I turned to get back on my bike.

"Maybe." She responded. "But that day isn't today."

Huge Time Break!

POV Change!

POV: Rachel

"Two coming in on the left!" Leo shouted as he launched a fire ball at the right side of my head.

I ducked under it as it flew into an approaching equalist.

I then spun to my left and grabbed the arm of the other one and shocked him with the gauntlet.

He screamed in pain and fainted.

"Keep moving." I told Leo as I took off towards the town hall.

We were in a small town in the fire nation. Ever since Annabeth went missing two years ago we have beet traveling the world as a kind of surrogate Avatar. Our little group has expanded as well to include Jupiter's Benders. Their leader was close friends with Percy so they wound up joining our team.

So now Team Avatar, as we're commonly called, Includes Jason the air-bender, Reyna the fire-bender, Piper the water-bender, Hazel the earth bender, Percy, Leo, Grover, and me.

With me in the fire nation right now is Leo, Jason, and Piper. We are here because the government of this small town has been overrun by equalists and the benders of the town are no longer safe. We tried to be diplomatic at first but the equalists wouldn't relinquish control of the town.

So here we are, kicking equalist ass.

As I reach the front door of the town hall, Jason and Piper come sprinting out of a side street they had cleared out and met us.

"Let's move, before they get away." Jason said as he air-bent the door open.

We rushed in to find a bunch of old equalists with their hands raised in the air, clearly surrendering.

"You got us." One said bitterly. "But mark my words, one of these days the benders will fall."

I rolled my eyes as Piper water-bent handcuff of ice onto the prisoners and turned to bring them to the local jail with Jason.

I sat down on a nearby chair and sighed, relived that the fight was over. I hate having to hurt people if I don't have to.

"You ok?" Leo asked.

I nodded.

"You know I hate these thing." I told him. "I'll be fine.

"Not what I meant." Leo said. "I meant are you ok over all, you do know what today is right?"

'How could I forget?' I thought bitterly.

Today was the two year anniversary of when Annabeth disappeared.

We had looked for her, of course, but we couldn't find her anywhere and there were no reported sightings. All the others gave up hope of finding her after six months but I kept on looking. It wasn't until a year and a half passed that I accepted that I wasn't going to find her.

The others kept consoling me like she was dead. When I pointed out that she just left and didn't die they gave me a look of pity. They all thought she was dead. That someone recognized her and killed her.

I fought them on the idea of her being dead for months but now I just don't know. After two years someone should have recognized her. But no one has.

For a while we investigated into a rumor of a small group on motorcycles that kept popping up here and there in the Earth Republic, putting a stop to various gangs and bandits but we eventually gave up because the group sounded too quick to violence to be Annabeth and I didn't even know how she would be able to afford a motorcycle.

In the end I just had to accept that she was gone and wasn't coming back.

"I'm fine." I told Leo. "It's just another day."

We both knew it was a lie but it was also clear that I didn't want to talk about it.

So Leo nodded and left me to my thoughts.

'Where are you?' I found myself thinking. 'I don't care if you remember who you were. I don't need you to so long as you're here.'

Part of me thought this was a selfish request but at the same time I couldn't help it.

Every piece of me just wanted to see her again.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

POV: Change!

POV: Annabeth

It's been three years since I left Republic City and I was starting to find out what kind of person I am. None of my memories had come back yet but I was learning more and more about myself with each passing day. Form what foods I like to what I would prefer to do in my free time.

As it turns out I like to look at architecture. Go figure, I'm apparently a nerd.

Thalia hated it when I would spend my nights by our camp fire reading about things. She complained that she wanted to go into town and get hammered or start a fight. I always told her she was free to leave whenever she wanted and that I wasn't holding her here.

She never responded to that.

She never said it but I think she didn't want to be alone. That she was happy enough just to have company.

One day we rode into a deserted town. It was obvious that people still lived here because the shops were freshly stocked but there was no sign of any people in the aria.

Then we rounded a corner onto Main Street and hit the brakes. Up ahead was a pack of people trashing a store front.

'Fucking thugs.' I thought as I turned my bike off and climbed off.

One of them noticed us.

"You two better get back on those bikes if you know what's good for you!" He warned.

I glanced at Thalia, who had an 'I'm gona have some fun with this one' look in her eyes.

"I'm afraid I don't know what's good for me." I called to the thug. "And neither do you apparently."

The whole gang was facing us now.

"You're fucking dead!" The thug I had insulted roared as he launched a fire ball at me. I used my bending to pull up a slab of earth and used it to block the fire ball. Then I threw it forward by slamming both my hands into the ground as Thalia jumped over my back and launched a water jet at the back of my earth slab as it sailed through the air.

The fire bender shot a fire ball at my earth slab, causing it to burst into a cloud of dust. He was then taken by surprise when Thalia's water jet came through the dust and slammed him in the chest, knocking him down.

We didn't have time to celebrate though as the rest of the gang was now attacking us. We rolled, ducked, and countered for what felt like forever when we finally started to make headway with them.

They were wearing down. Their attacks were becoming less and less frequent. So of course I became cocky.

My guard slipped as their attacks slowed and I didn't see the thin band of water approaching my head until it was only a few inches away.

I instantly tried to duck to the right as I saw the water freeze into what looked like an ice blade, out of the corner of my eye.

Then I felt a sharp pain where my left ear meat my head and I let out a scream.

In a moment I was on the ground as Thalia sprinted over to cover me while I was down.

She launched attack after attack, driving the gang back, as I stared in shock at the puddle of blood on the floor in front of me.

It was my blood and in the center of it was my entire left ear!

Rage filled me as my head snapped up to look at the thugs.

'They cut off my ear!' My mind screamed at me. 'The suns a bitches cut off my ear!'

My hand shot out on instinct and the ground beneath their feet launched them all into the air.

There were sickening thunks as they came crashing back down. The few that were still awake staggered their way towards the edge of town.

"Come back any time!" Thalia screamed after them, but she sounded muffled and unfocused. "I'm always looking for my next victim!"

But even as she said it I was slipping back into shock, staring at the ever growing puddle of blood on the ground.

"Thals," I began, my own voice sounding strange to me. "My ear."

She crouched down next to me and examined my head.

"Shit." She murmured in that same distant voice. "We need to find you a healer."

I nodded as she helped me to my feet and supported me under the arm as we set off to find a healer.

Luckily we didn't have to go far. A blond boy emerged from one of the houses and jogged over to us.

"Thank you both for saving our town." He said, his voice sounding quiet and out of focus, to us as he jogged closer. It was like all the sounds I heard were coming from every direction at once on the left side of my head but were clear on the right.

It was extremely disorienting.

Then he seemed to notice all the blood and he froze.

"Let me help you." He said. "I'm a healer."

He reached out a hand and water from a nearby barrel flew to his arm and clung to him. He then placed the water on the side of my head and the spot where my ear had once been felt so much better. But as he did this I felt like a knot was forming above and in back of the wound.

"What's this?" He asked as he shifted the water slightly so it still covered the wound but it also sat over the knot better. "I feel a lot of built up energy here."

Then it was like a dam burst.

Images flashed in front of my eyes so quickly it made my head hurt. It was my whole life. All my memories.

They came pouring through my mind bringing with them all the emotions I felt when they originally happened.

I collapsed to the ground as the images continued.

As the airship crash finished I was relived because I thought it was finally over. But the image shifted again and I found myself waking up in the debris field alone.

I looked around in shock before I called out.

"Red!" I screamed as I stood up. "Rachel?"

There was no response.

'Please be ok!' My memory form begged.

Then my whole body locked up as pain overwhelmed me.

I tried to scream but my jaw wouldn't open.

'What is this?' My memory self though, terrified.

Then my memory self-dropped to my knees and arched my back to face the sky, completely against my will.

"Hello Annabeth." A voice said in back of me as Luke entered my line of sight. "You didn't think it would be this easy, did you?"

"How?" I managed to ask. "Did…You…Get…Here?"

He smirked at me.

"I was on the ship with you the whole time." He answered. "I knew it would be harder to do this with your friend around so I waited for the crash to separate you two."

This guy was gloating?! He was really going to gloat!

"Just…Kill…Me!" I spat at him. "Get…It…Over…With!"

He tsked me a few times and shook his head.

"Oh, I'm not going to kill you." He said slowly. "I do that you will simply reincarnate into the next Avatar. No I have a much better plan." He paused as he pulled out an equalist gauntlet. "Without your bending you are no threat at all."

He raised the gauntlet to my far-head as my eyes widened with fear.

'No!' My mind screamed at me as I tried to fight his blood bending. 'No!'

I could hear his gauntlet charging to fire, but at the last second I managed to turn my head.

There was a zap and a sharp pain above and behind my left ear, then there was darkness. When I came too it was to Rachel finding me in the debris field as the image slowly faded back to reality.

As I returned to consciousness I wasn't quite sure where I was at first as I lay on the ground with my eyes shut in pain

Then I could hear a distant voice screaming.

"What the hell did you do to her?!" A girl's voice screamed, sounding far away. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HER?!"

"Red?" I could barely hear myself murmur, as I opened my eyes.

As it turns out I was on the ground in the middle of the street with Thalia and the blond healer leaning over me.

Thalia was screaming her head off, looking like she was about to drop the blond guy.

"What?" Thalia asked. "Red what?"

I could feel my stomach sinking. Red wasn't here.

She wasn't here and I would most likely never see her again.

I had been away for three years! Even if I wanted to go back she probably moved on years ago. Plus, in all the reading about past Avatars that I did I found out that the biggest problem all the Avatars faced was being too public. Every time they went anywhere they were recognized and people often knew they were coming before they got to the town. That gave criminals plenty of time to hide and wait out the Avatar's visit.

No one knew who I was now. I was so well hidden that I had heard rumors about my own death. If the world thought I was gone then it made my job that much easier to do.

Even with the upsides though, all I wanted to do was to go back to Red. To try and explain everything. But that would only dredge up the past and I knew I wouldn't be able to take it when she would tell me she moved on. That it would probably break me to my core.

"What's wrong with her?" Thalia demanded.

"I don't know." The healer answered. "There was some sort of Energy clump in her brain, clogging up a lot of chi. I used my bending to weaken it and she destroyed the rest on her own. It should have helped her feel stronger."

"You just gave me my life back." I told him in a dead sounding voice.

I was slowly getting used to the quiet, unfocused, way the world sounded now but it was still disturbing to me.

"What?" Thalia demanded.

I looked up at her.

"I remember everything." I told her. "Whatever he did it fixed my memory."

Thalia frowned at me.

"You told me the doctor said there was no damage to heal." She said slowly.

"I didn't heal anything." The blond boy said. "All I did was use my water-bending to help the energy blockage in her head budge a little. She did the rest. Your doctor probably didn't know."

I nodded as I turned to look at him.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

He answered but I couldn't hear what he said.

"Sorry?" I said. "I didn't catch that."

He studied me for a moment.

"My name's Will." He said. "Does everything sound quiet and hard to pin where the sound is coming from?"

I nodded.

He let out a defeated sigh and shook his head.

"I'm sorry," He began. "But the ear amplifies sounds to what we know as normal volumes so without it the sound will be quieter." He paused before continuing. "And as the sound waves pass it they vibrated the ear slightly. Our brains learned to use this to tell where sounds came from, so again, there is nothing I could do for that. Just figured I could give you an explanation as to why."

I didn't know how to respond to this. Not only was my ear cut off but now I would have to deal with this hearing problem!

I just sighed and turned to Thalia.

"How does it look?" I asked her.

She studied me for a moment before answering.

"You look lopsided but there's no scar tissue at least." She said. "Will did a nice job of patching you up."

I nodded and thanked Will for all he had done.

Will offered us to stay with him and his boyfriend Nico at their house for the night. After several weeks of camping and the day I had, it was a welcomed change of pace.

"So," Began Nico, over the dinner table. "You guys saved the shops from the gang?"

Thalia nodded as scooped some meat into my mouth.

It really was delicious. Especially since we didn't have to cook it over a camp fire.

"I guess you're regretting doing it." Nico commented as he turned to face me.

I just shrugged.

"We've been doing this for a while." I said. "My luck was bound to run out eventually."

"I still want to know why you two do it." Will spoke up. "You told me you go around from town to town stopping people like the gang, but why?"

He was looking intently between me and Thalia.

"We just feel like it." Thalia said, using our normal excuse when people ask us questions.

Will seamed to accept this but Nico still looked suspicious as he stared at me.

"I've seen you before." He said slowly. "Were you in a mover by any chance?"

I shook my head. It was a flat out lie but I was hoping that the news reals from Republic City didn't play out here, in this small Earth Republic town.

"Are you sure?" Nico asked. "It's something about your…" I trailed off before his eyes bugged out of his head. "No way! I thought you were dead!"

'Shit!' My mind screamed at me as I held a calm face.

"Me?" I asked him, playing innocent.

"Yah, you're Avatar Annabeth!" He cried out. "What are you doing out in the middle of nowhere?"

I pretended to look surprised.

"My name's Angela." I told him. "And we're just going on a road trip through the Earth Republic and happened across this town."

Nico just stared at me, clearly not buying anything I was saying. Meanwhile Will was studying my face, apparently he was starting to recognize me as well.

Will was about to say something when I snapped.

"Fine!" I cut Will off. "Fine. I'm the Avatar."

Nico had this smug grin on his face as he started to speak.

"Why haven't you announced to the world you're still alive?" He asked.

And so I told him about my Avatar research during my nights at the campfires and what I learned about their travels. How the criminals would hide when they were around.

He nodded, apparently understanding.

"Nico," Will began. "Don't pester her."

And so we spent the rest of the night talking and laughing about various things. It was nice to spend one night in an actual house and not have to worry about the fire going out or where my next meal would come from. But even as I laughed at one of Will's jokes I felt a little sad. As if something was missing.

Even as I sat there trying to figure out what it was my brain was screaming the answer to me.

'It's Red you idiot!' It screamed at me. 'You miss Red!'

Will and Nico were great hosts. Well, Will was. But even with them promising not to tell anyone I was alive, we still moved on the next day.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

POV: Annabeth

Nothing happened to us for almost a year after that. No small towns in need of rescue, or governments that needed to be stopped. There were no memory losses or further mutilations. It was quiet and I thought that just maybe it was time to relax a little and set up a place to live. Get a small house and use it like a base of operations. Some might call it a home but I knew I could never do that. It couldn't be home because Rachel wasn't there.

Even so I knew she was better off now with whoever she moved on to. Even if it did hurt me to think about.

So I enjoyed a quiet life, roaming from town to town. I should have known it was just the calm before the storm.

I would never forget the night that set it all in motion.

Like I said it was about a year after we met Will and Nico and my appearance had changed yet again. I had the same clothes but I grew my hair out to jaw length on the left side to cover my ear hole. On the back and right side, it was still cut short and the bangs of my hair flowed to the left side of my head so that they no longer rested on my far head. It looked strange but I was still unrecognizable so I was happy.

Thalia and I were sitting by our camp fire talking.

"I don't think I ever told you why I wanted to travel, did I?" She said, staring into the heart of the fire.

I stared across the flames at her face, the shadows cast on it made her look instance.

"No," I answered. "You didn't, but I always assumed you just wanted to get into more fights."

She smirked at my words and shook her head.

"That was just an added bonus." she said. "Truth is I've been running from something that I didn't want to think about."

"What is it?" I asked, not liking her tone.

'She didn't murder someone, did she?'

"I was born in the northern Water-Tribe." She began. "Everything was so messed up, when I was little. My father was an Air-bender nomad who wondered through and got my mother pregnant. Then he wandered through again a few years later and they had my little brother, before my father disappeared again. He showed up a third time to take my little brother away once he found out he was an air-bender." She paused. "My mother was crazy, she tried to feed my little brother to polar bear-dogs once. Said a spirit told her to do it. Anyway, about two years ago some sales men from the Sothern Water-Tribe came up to trade and brought their kids to teach them how to trade. One of them was this nice guy who had a similar home situation to mine and wanted nothing more than to get away."

She looked up from the fire and met my eyes.

"We ran away together and, for a while, we were a team." She said. "But he became more and more pessimistic about the world and how everything needed to change. He started to spout these radicle views and go off into these rants. I would just let him vent, not thinking much of it until one day he asked me to help him over through a town's government and put ourselves in charge to start his new system. When I said no he became angry and started to yell and scream. He left that night when I was sleeping and I never saw him again."

She turned back to the fire.

"When I found out who you are I thought it was a sign or something." She said. "Like it all happened for a reason but it still doesn't take away the hurt. I see him whenever I go to sleep you know, his face, smile, the way his eyes seamed to shine when he smiled." She sighed, in a depressed way, and shook her head. "I never thought he would leave me like that."

I nodded in sympathy.

"I know how you feel." I told her.

She looked up at me.

"You do?" She asked.

I nodded.

"Before I lost my memory I..." I paused.

I had never actually put my relationship with Rachel into words before. We never needed to. It was just understood between us how we felt.

"I fell for someone." I eventually settled on. "I couldn't take the looks of longing I would get. I knew seeing me with no memory of what we used to have was hurting Red, so it's what made me leave."

Thalia stared at me.

"Red is a person?" She asked. "When Will healed your head you were muttering 'Red'."

I nodded.

"He must have been a hell of a guy." Thalia said with a small smile.

I shook my head.

"She wasn't a guy." I said, staring into the fire.

"What?" Thalia asked, sounding surprised. "The person named 'Red' Was a girl?"

"Her name was Rachel Elizabeth Dare." I said. "Her initials spelt Red."

I gave a small smile as I continued to think of her.

"It didn't help that she was a red head." I added. "And her eyes would pop out in comparison to her hair. They would look like emeralds shining in a bright light."

My reminiscing however was cut off when a group of travelers rounded the corner of the road we were camped next to, carrying armor and weapons with them.

"Hi." One of them called out to us. "Were you two called in as well?"

Thalia and I exchanged questioning looks.

"Called in?" I asked the guy that had spoken.

He nodded as his group stopped a few feet from our fire.

"Ba Sing Se is under siege" The man said. "The President put out a call to the Earth republic to come and help defend the city.

My eyebrows shot up in surprise.

I glanced at Thalia to see a similar look on her face. This was news to her as well.

"Well we're going there now." Thalia said before I could answer.

And so we took off on our bikes the next day, going as fast as the engines would take us. That being said it still took two weeks to reach the city.

What we found was a well defended tunnel with Earth Republic troops surrounding it as the sounds of battle could be heard in the distance.

"Stop!" Cried one of the troops, holding out his hand to earth-bend a boulder into the air.

We braked and skidded to a stop a few feet from him.

"We heard the city was being attacked." I told him before he could ask us why we were there. "We came to help."

He looked skeptical.

"The call went out weeks ago." He said. "Why are you joining now?"

"We rode all the way here on our bikes." I told him. "It was a long trip."

He nodded and let us pass.

"Good luck." He told us. "The enemy forces have over run the lower ring and are battling for the middle ring."

"Who are they?" I asked him.

A shadow crossed his face as his expression turned sour.

"The dark Avatar's forces." He said. "There's at least ten thousand of them."

"Why aren't the other nations helping?" Demanded Thalia.

The guard shrugged.

"There's rumor of a civil war amongst the Water tribe and the Fire nation is preparing for a solar eclipse in the next few days.

He paused.

"The United Republic is busy dealing with an Equalist uprising and the Air Nomads want nothing to do with war." The Guard continued. "Looks like we're on our own."

I know I should have been worried about the fight to come but I was just ashamed. I was the Avatar and I had let a civil war break out and an Equalist uprising occur.

This was my fault.

"We better go." I told him, wanting nothing more than to try and make this right.

He nodded and we rode off into the tunnel.

When the tunnel ended we were in the upper ring of the city, a few yards from the palace. The battle could be heard from where we were.

"New recruits this way!" Called out an Earth Republic trooper in full armor.

We ignored him and rode off towards the sound of the battle, only to be stopped by an officer.

"I can't let you two go out there." He said. "You'll need to be evaluated first."

Thalia demonstrated her water-bending by launching a jet of water from her bending pouches and freezing the man's feet to the floor. I then sent a gust of wind at him to jar him a little.

"We pass the test?" I asked. "We came here to fight, not wait around."

The man looked like he was about to blow his top at us so Thalia bent her water back into the pouches and we revved our bikes to life and bolted past the officer into the combat zone.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

POV: Rachel

I was in the Middle ring of Ba Sing Se with Hazel and Reyna as the battle continued to rage.

We were all called in to help fight the Dark Avatar but so far we were just more troops being deployed on attack, sleep, attack, sleep schedules. Right now we were pretty far into the combat zone and were meeting a new squad of enemies on every block.

I could see a new squad charging us and could hear a tired groan escape my lips.

Then I heard a different sound. A long rumble coming from an ally to our left.

"Just great." I muttered as we prepared to fight the squad and whatever was in the ally.

Just before the squad reached us two motor cycles burst out of the ally and hooked a left towards the enemy.

The surprise knocked me onto my but as the riders jumped off the bikes and went on the offensive.

The one with the dark hair started to water bend as the other threw fireballs at the squad.

They were winning but I was too busy being mesmerized by the brief glimpses of the blonde's face that I would catch whenever she would dodge a shot.

The clothes hid her figure and the hair looked completely different but I would know that face anywhere.

Annabeth!

She was throwing a fire ball at one enemy as the black haired girl water-bent two others to the wall.

As they did this Hazel and Reyna charged forward and the Enemy retreated, clearly out matched.

"Good work." Annabeth told the other girl as she turned to face me. "You alright?" She asked.

She doesn't recognize me? Not even from after the crash?

Then it hit me that I was wearing Earth republic armor with the helmet. There was no part of me that was visible so I reached up and removed my helmet.

POV Change!

POV: Annabeth

The trooper in front of me removed its helmet to reveal the face that I've missed with every fiber of my being since I regained my memories.

Rachel.

The one word shocked my senses.

"Red?" I asked breathlessly, unable to proses that she was here.

Her face grew into a huge smile at my words before it contorted into a puzzled look and then furry.

"What?!" She demanded in anger. "What did you just call me?!"

I paused, not sure what I did wrong as she stood up and walked up to me. She stood nose to nose with me, her beautiful eyes glaring into mine.

"You just called me Red!" She almost screamed. "You remember!"

I nodded, confused. I thought she would be happy for me.

"You remember!" She screamed at me. "How long? How long have you known?!"

I shifted uncomfortably.

"About a year." I told her.

I looked up at her to see pure rage as I felt a hard slap on my right cheek.

"A year!" She screamed. "You left me alone for four years! You could have come home any time but you SHOULD have come home once you remembered! A whole year! Do you know how alone I felt?!"

I shook my head, feeling tears in my eyes.

"I'm so sorry." I told her. "I never meant to hurt you."

"Then why?!" She demanded. "Why didn't you come back to me?!"

"I thought you'd have moved on and..." I paused. "I just couldn't take it. It would have broken me."

"And staying away makes it better?" She demanded.

"No." I answered. "But I also thought you would be safer. In the past people target the Avatar by going after the ones who are closest to them."

Rachel's expression softened as she reached up with her left hand and stroked my cheek.

It took all my will power not to lean into the touch. To stand firm.

"I'm pretty sure the possibility of me having a safe life went out the window the moment I fell in love with the Avatar." She said.

Her words echoed in my head.

'I fell in love with the Avatar.'

She was in love with me!

My stomach was all tied up in knots as my heart was skipping every other beat.

I couldn't hold firm any more as I leaned my head against her hand and pulled her into a hug.

"I missed you so much." I told her.

She made to remove her hand from my cheek to hug me back when she froze.

I knew why too. Her hand was right over my ear hole.

She took a step back and pushed my hair out of the way.

"Oh, Annabeth." She said in a shocked tone. "What happened?"

I shook my head.

"Me and Thalia," I began as I gestured to the tattooed girl, standing awkwardly a few feet away. "We would go around from town to town and help people. One of the thugs got a lucky shot in a year ago and took my ear." I paused. "The healer who fixed it also gave me back my memories though."

She looked surprised.

"So you got your memories back by losing an ear?" She asked.

"Kind of." I said. "If I hadn't lost the ear I never would have had a healer screw around with my head and I would never have remembered anything."

I looked into her eyes.

"I'm sorry I didn't come back." I told her.

She gave me a smile.

"You're here now." She said. "That's all that matters."

she gave my hand a tug.

"Come on." She said. "We can catch up back at camp."

I nodded and gave her hand a tug.

"We can take my bike." I told her. "It's only supposed to seat one so you'll have to hold on tight."

She gave me a smile.

"I'm never letting go." She said with a laugh in her voice. "The last time I did you ran off for four years."

I felt my face blush as I led her to my bike and we climbed on.

I could feel her pressed to my back with her arms wrapped firmly around my waist.

"You coming?" I asked Thalia as I turned on the motor.

She shook her head.

"You two catch up." She said. "I want to beat up some bad guys."

I nodded as the two armored troops Red was with removed their helmets

"We're going to keep fighting." The taller girl said. "You mind if we team up?" She asked Thalia.

Thalia looked doubtful.

"Just don't get in my way." Thalia told her as she turned and ran off towards the sound of more fighting.

The other two girls shrugged and ran after her.

"Who were they?" I asked Rachel, glancing over my shoulder.

"Reyna and Hazel." She answered. "They joined team Avatar after you left."

"Team Avatar?" I asked, trying to suppress a laugh. "A little corny isn't it?"

"I'll explain later." She promised as I revved the bike and took off towards the camp.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

POV: Rachel

'She's back! She's really back!' Was the only thought that ran through my head during the long ride back to the camp. The only thig that dampened my mood was when the wind would whip through her hair and blow it around, revealing the hole in the side of her head where her ear used to be.

Once we got back to the Team's tent I pulled her by the arm over to my cot and laid down with her beside me. The cot wasn't very comfortable and it was way too small for the both of us. In my mind though, that just let us curl up closer to each other.

"I missed this." I said as I buried my head into her shoulder.

She squeezed my shoulder to let me know she heard me but didn't answer.

"Are you ok?" I asked looking up into her storm grey eyes, as she stared at the roof of the tent in deep thought.

She frowned at my words before answering.

"I can't stay." She said after a moment.

I frowned at her as my eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Why not?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"The dark Avatar is here." She said. "He took my memories last time." She paused. "He was just toying with me."

"You're running away?" I asked her. "You're just going to leave him to hurt all these people?"

She shook her head.

"No." She said bluntly as she sat up on the edge of the bed. "I'm going to end this but I don't think I'm going to survive the fight."

Her back was turned to me as she spoke with her head angled towards the floor.

"This has to stop." She said. "He needs to be stopped, Rachel. And we both know I'm not powerful enough to end this and walk out the other side. Just look at what he did last time when he was toying with me."

"That's why we need to do this together." I told her as I placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She looked over her shoulder at me.

"I can't let you do that." She said. "I couldn't take it if something happened to you."

"And just what do you think I would feel if you run off to fight him alone?" I demanded, shaking my head. "From ten-thousand feet, or just two." I told her. "If you crash, I crash with you."

"You're not crashing with me." She cut me off. "I reached my stop, you still have some ways to go." She shifted her weight to face me. "Enjoy the ride for me, will ya?"

I shook my head.

"No." I told her. "This isn't your stop. And even if it is I'll be getting off with you. You're not leaving me again."

She had this sad look in her eye that I recognized all too well. It was the same look I wore for four years. She was trying to pretend like everything was fine and that she could just continue on but inside it was killing her.

"I need to do this." She stated. "And I refuse to let you go down with me."

"There has to be a way we can beat him." I said.

She just shook her head.

"I'm not powerful enough." She said.

"What about the Avatar state?" I asked her.

"I can't access it." She said. "I've tried."

"You did during the crash." I told her.

"That was different." She said. "The adrenaline took over and I was reacting."

"What were you thinking about?" I asked. "Your exact thoughts."

She just sat there, staring at my lap.

"You." She said.

I extended a hand to her chin and forced her to look into my eyes.

"Just keep looking at me." I told her. "Breath slowly and deeply."

She did as she was told.

"Let your mind go blank." I instructed. "Your body will know what to do. Just focus on me and relax."

She continued to breathe deeply and focus on me. After a moment her eyes widened and was replaced by a bright blue light.

POV Change!

POV: Annabeth

I was staring into Rachel's green eyes when my view shifted to a field in the spirit world. In front of me stood an old woman in water tribe getup.

"About time." She said with a cocky smile. "I was wondering when you would get her."

I frowned at her, very confused.

"Who are you?" I asked her.

The woman rolled her eyes.

"My name's Korra." She said with a look that said 'duh'.

"Korra?" I asked. "Avatar Korra?"

"Well who were you expecting?" She asked.

"Why are you here?" I asked her. "Why now?"

"You called me here." She stated. "You're in the Avatar state."

'I am?' I thought.

"So what seems to be the problem?" She asked.

I sighed.

"The dark avatar is back and attacking Ba Sing Se." I told her. "Last time I faced him he used blood-bending to control me and was just toying with me. I don't think I can beat him." I paused. "What should I do?"

She frowned at me, looking very serious.

"That is up to you to decide." She told me. "But between you and me, the world isn't a clean place." She paused. "Sometimes you need to get your hands dirty to keep people safe. Do something that will be viewed as wrong to stand up for what you know is right." She turned to leave and said "Think about it."

And with that she was gone.

'Well that's just perfect!' I thought. 'What the hell am I supposed to do now?"

But before I had time to think my vision changed and I was back on the cot with Rachel.

She smiled at me, looking very excited.

"You did it!" She cried out. "Now you can use that to beet Luke!"

I shook my head.

"No." I said. "I wasn't here. I was in the Spirit world, talking to Avatar Korra."

"Korra?" She asked, looking surprised. "What did she say?"

"That I have to do something people think is bad to save them from Luke." I said. "She said the world isn't a clean place and that I need to get my hands dirty to save it."

Red nodded.

"So what do you have to do?" She asked.

I shook my head.

"I don't know." I said. "She left before she told me."

Before another word could be spoken Percy came running in.

"Rachel!" He screamed. "A report just came in, he's at their camp on the western side of the city. We need to move now before we lose him."

He paused in surprise when he saw me.

"Annabeth?" He asked. "You're back?"

I shook my head.

"I came to stop Luke." I said. "This will probably be the last time we see each other."

With that I stood up and walked out of the tent to find Luke on the western enemy camp.

I only made it a few feet when Rachel and Percy's steps fell into pace with mine, on either side of me.

"Like I said." Rachel began. "You're not leaving me."

I wanted to argue but the look she gave me shut me up.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

POV:Annabeth

We were almost through the Enemy lines when I spotted her.

Thalia was fighting her way through the enemy up ahead with Hazel and Reyna. They had more solders with them that I recognized as the rest of HBB and Jupiter's Benders.

"Thalia!" I shouted. "Go low!"

She nodded and ducked as I charged forward and jumped over her, launching a gust of wind at the squad charging her.

She rolled to her left and came up with a water jab that knocked out an enemy that was about to stab me with a spear.

We continued to advance as a group through the enemy's attacks until we reached the camp.

It was a bunch of ruined buildings and tents in the lower ring.

"Find him!" I shouted. "Now!"

Before any one moved a voice echoed from across the camp.

"What's the big rush?" Luke asked, stepping out from behind a tent. "Avatar Annabeth, it's been a while. How is being a non-bender working for you?"

He smirked as a shadow crossed over the city, darkening the aria. I didn't notice though because I was too focused on Luke. I completely zoned everything ells out as I sucked in a deep breath and swung my arm to throw a stream of fire.

Nothing happened.

I tried again as Luke laughed.

"Four years." He said. "And you still try and use bending that will never return?"

This didn't make any sense. My bending worked this morning.

I looked around my friends to see they were all looking ready to kill except Thalia. She looked shocked, like she just saw a ghost.

Then I scanned my environment to find what did this to me when I saw it. The shadow casting over the city. I looked up and felt my fear grow.

A solar eclipse.

My fire bending was useless.

I was still formulating a plan on how to beat him when Jason charged, screaming and throwing air punches as Piper took off after him with water bending. Luke smirked and easily dodged their attacks as he swiped his hand to blood bend the pair into a, partially demolished, wall. They slumped to the floor, unconscious.

"No!" Thalia screamed, as she sprinted to Jason's side. "Luke, stop!"

My head whipped around to face her. She had just said Luke. I didn't recall ever telling his name to her.

"Luke!" Thalia pleaded. "Please listen to me, it doesn't have to be this way!"

Luke ignored her as he locked eyes with me.

"How does it fell to be powerless?" He asked me, a cruel smile etched on his face. "How easy it was to secure this victory. Start a civil war in the Water Tribes and convince the equalists to revolt. Nature took care of the Fire Nation and the Air Nomads want nothing to do with fighting." He laughed. "It's a sign that nature wants me to win this fight."

He smirked as he drew water from a nearby puddle and launched it at Percy, who easily rolled to the side and was about to counter attack when the water jet came back and hit him in the small of his back and sent him flying into a wall. He slumped to the floor in a dazed stupor.

"Enough!" I screamed as I launched a boulder at Luke's head. "This is between us!"

Luke's smirk turned to shock as he summoned water to block the boulder.

"So you still have your bending." He said as his eyes narrowed on me. "Then I guess there is only one solution to my problem."

He shot his hand out towards me as I felt his blood-bending take hold.

I cried out in pain as he forced me to my knees. I could also hear the pained cries of Grover, Hazel, and Rachel. He had them in his grip as well.

"I tried to be merciful." Luke said as he approached me. "But now I see the only way for my vision to come to fruition is to eliminate you."

'I can't die like this!' My mind screamed at me. 'Red still needs me!'

I struggled against his grip, trying desperately to break free.

"Luke!" Thalia screamed from her spot on the floor by Jason. "Please don't! Please!"

'Why won't she help?' I kept thinking as I struggled against his grip.

Then, as Thalia screamed again, his grip on me faltered and I broke free of his blood-bending grip.

He grimaced at me and quickly tried to get a hold of me again but this time I was ready. I could fell his grip before it took hold and I pushed back against it with my own water-bending, trying to get his powers under control. Then it happened. I could feel him through my bending. The water in his veins. As this realization hit me he let out a scream of pain and dropped to his knees.

I was blood-bending him!

"What?!" He struggled to scream out. "H-How?"

I was horrified at what I was doing but so long as I had him in my grip he couldn't hurt anyone.

He just knelt there, grimacing in pain as he struggled to look around. Then is eyes widened in surprise when he saw Thalia.

"Thalia?" He gasped through the pain. "You're here? W-what…aaarrrhhh…." He paused and shut his eyes in pain as I tried to keep my nerve. I couldn't let him go without endangering everyone. "Why are you here?"

She stared him down, a sad look in her eye.

"I came to stop the dark Avatar." She said. "It's you isn't it? You're trying to destroy everything!"

Luke stared at her as he grunted and winced in pain.

"I didn't mean it." He gasped out, turning to me. "It's Vaatu, it's Vaatu."

"The dark spirit." Rachel said as she stepped up next to me, giving me an uncomfortable look.

I knew why too. I was crossing the line here, blood-bending another person. Even if it was the dark Avatar I was still blood-bending.

"Yes," Luke gasped as sweat poured down his, pain contorted, face. "Vaatu had control of my mind. I wasn't myself. I wasn't thinking strait."

"And why would I believe you?" I demanded. "You just want me to release you!"

"No!" He cried out. "You release me and Vaatu will cloud my mind again and make me hurt people! Don't let that happen! Please!" He was desperately begging. "Vaatu needs to be stopped! Please!"

"Rachel," I began in a low tone.

"No!" Thalia butted in before I could continue. "You can't kill him!"

That wasn't my plan at all but her reaction surprised me.

"Thalia?" I asked as she stepped between me and Luke. "What are you doing?"

"You can't kill him." She said fiercely. "I won't let you."

That's when it clicked in my head. Her story about the boy she loved. The one who slowly turned from a good man to one who wanted to over throw governments and make himself a dictator. It was Luke!

"I don't want to kill him." I assured her. "I only want Rachel to use her gauntlet to take his bending so he can't hurt anyone."

Thalia stared at me, clearly trying to figure out if what I said was the truth.

"He's the dark Avatar." She stated. "Why would you let him live?"

"If he dies," I began. "He reincarnates and then he hurts more people. This option buys more time for peace."

She frowned at me but eventually stepped aside and nodded to Rachel, giving her permission to use the gauntlet.

Rachel looked unsure about this though.

"This is going too far." She told me. "This is exactly what an equalist would do."

"Do you have another option?" I asked her. "Because if you do I would love to hear it."

She just stared at me before shaking her head and turning back to Luke.

"I'm sorry." She told him.

He shook his head.

"Don't," He told her. "it won't make a difference. Vaatu had an army to back him, even without my bending. If I live they will never stop hurting people and following his orders."

"I'm not going to kill you so you can reincarnate!" I screamed at him.

"What makes you think I'd let you." Growled Thalia, water bending a stream of water to a ready to fight position.

"Thalia," Luke began as he continued to grunt and wince on his knees. "I have Vaatu in me. If she lets go I won't be me anymore. He will use me to destroy millions of people and I can't let that happen. I have to be stopped."

"Don't!" I shouted at them. "If he dies then Vaatu gets a new host to terrorize the world in!"

"Not necessarily." Luke said. "We both know there's a way to break the cycle."

I frowned at him, not following what he was saying. Rachel must have known though because she gasped.

"It's too dangerous!" She cut in. "That's giving Vaatu unlimited power, it's just too risky."

"What is?" Grover asked.

"The Avatar state." Rachel said. "If he is killed in the avatar state them he can't reincarnate and there won't be any more dark Avatars."

"You want me to fight you in the Avatar state?" I asked. "How stupid do you think I am?"

He shook his head.

"Not fight." He, said wincing. "You need to kill me in the moment I enter the state but before I am aware of what is going on around me. If you keep hold of me with blood-bending I might be able to suppress the spirit long enough to give you one shot at it."

"No." Thalia said, tears streaming from her eyes. "I can't let you do this."

"If you don't." Luke said. "Then Vaatu has won and the world will be doomed. I can't be responsible for that. This is my choice, Thalia." He locked eyes with her, putting all his emotions in his eyes despite the intense pain he was in. "Please."

Thalia looked like she was broken. Tears running down her face as she knelt next to Luke.

"Ok." She mumbled weakly and wrapped her arms around him.

Rachel stepped forward towards Luke, only to have water shot at her by Thalia.

"Stay back!" She shouted.

"Thalia," I pleaded. "This has to be done and it's what he wants."

She glared at me before speaking.

"I'll do it." She said.

She turned to Luke.

"Whenever you're ready." She told him.

He gave her a sad smile.

"Thank you." He told her. "I love you, remember that."

And with that he shut his eyes as Thalia formed a knife out of ice. Then Luke's eyes snapped open to reveal purple lights that turned and locked with Thalia's eyes.

I could feel my grip on him slipping as his raw power overwhelmed me.

"Thalia!" I screamed. "I can't hold him!"

Before I even finished the sentence she shut her eyes and thrust the ice dagger into his side, just below the armpit, and he gasped out in pain and collapsed.

She sunk to the floor at his side as I felt his power fade.

He was gone.

Thalia was bent over his corps, sobbing her eyes out as I approached her, unsure of what to say. So I just crouched down next to my friend and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"He's a hero." I told her. "He sacrificed himself to stop Vaatu once and for all."

She nodded as she cradled his head in her lap.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Epilog

POV: Annabeth

I was going to throw up.

It was that terrifying and exhilarating.

It has been six months since Luke sacrificed himself at Ba Sing Se and the world was getting back to normal.

When Luke fell all the dark energy that he had used to cause the civil war and the revolts went away. The world was a peace again.

So now here I am, scared out of my mind because of the person standing beside me.

Rachel was staring into my eyes, waiting for me to speak. She looked beautiful in her green and yellow dress. I knew what to say but was too nervous.

"Well?" Grover asked me from his spot on my right.

He was wearing his Air Nomad ceremony robes.

"I don't care if it's from ten-thousand feet, or just two." I told her. "If you crash, I crash with you." I paused for a moment, mesmerized in her beautiful eyes. Those emeralds that I would never grow tired of "Because I'm with you, till the end of the line."

She smiled at me as Grover spoke.

"Then I hereby pronounce you two as married." He said as the small gathering of friends and loved ones clapped and I leaned forward and kissed her.

It had taken four years and a narrowly avoided apocalypse but we were together, and nothing was going to change that.

The End

A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: I hope you enjoyed the story, I worked hard on it. It was a bumpy road with creative moments and writer's block as well.

Over the summer it took to write this I feel this story grew as I did and I hope you liked it.

Please leave a review to let me know what you think.

Thank you so much for reading and good luck with where ever the future may take you.

ricojohn


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